Image Credit: B.C. Ambulance via Flickr
July 19, 2022 - 1:48 PM
An Ashcroft resident living at a seniors care home within a block of both the local hospital and the B.C. Ambulance Service station went into cardiac arrest Sunday, but there was no one available to help.
When 9-1-1 was called for the patient at around 11:23 a.m. Sunday, July 17, the emergency room was closed for the weekend because of a lack of doctors.
There were no paramedics in the village when the call came, so the ambulance service dispatched paramedics from out of town at about 11:24 a.m., according to a B.C. Emergency Health Services spokesperson.
A local firefighter performed CPR on the patient at Thompson View Lodge at until paramedics arrived at 11:50 a.m. to take over.
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The emergency health services spokesperson didn't say what time the firefighter arrived or if the patient was still alive by the time paramedics got there. The patient did, however, die due to the cardiac arrest.
"Our deepest condolences are with the patient's family at this difficult time," the emailed statement from emergency health services reads.
The emergency department at the Ashcroft hospital was closed both Saturday and Sunday, but it would normally be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
"It is shocking and, sadly, with the multiple closures we're seeing in Clearwater and Ashcroft, you have to think it's more likely to happen again," Ashcroft mayor Barbara Roden said.
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Roden called the incident a "perfect storm," when the patient's cardiac arrest lined up with the emergency department closure and a paramedic shortage.
She's since spoken with Interior Health officials, including CEO Susan Brown, and officials with B.C. Emergency Health Services. The provincial health-care body oversees the ambulance service and will be reviewing where its paramedics were at the time and what happened to cause a nearly half-hour response time.
Roden called the staffing shortage across B.C.'s health-care system a "systemic issue" and said she isn't blaming any individual for the person's death.
Interior Health has periodically closed emergency departments in communities like Ashcroft and Clearwater for months, often urging residents to call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency.
Both Interior Health and emergency health services confirmed the health authority will send notice when there is a hospital closure and emergency health services will "plan accordingly" to transport to other hospitals.
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The situation on Sunday was tragic when you can see the hospital and the ambulance station from where the person was," Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart said.
She said local residents in Ashcroft and the surrounding area the hospital serves are frustrated and concerned because they don't know if they'll get the healthcare they need in an emergency.
"As it gets more acute, it becomes a fear about how do I make sure I only get sick in the hours I have a doctor available to me?" she said. "We have been talking healthcare in Ashcroft for probably 20 years and there's a whole lot of talk and there's very little change... I think we're at a crisis level. Our usual back up is a local ambulance and to find ourselves without either an ER or a local ambulance is quite frightening."
Interior Health has been under pressure from the public for months for its inability to fully staff both rural hospitals and its large regional hospital in Kamloops, Royal Inland.
Even at Royal Inland Hospital, nursing and frontline staff is 28 per cent below its baseline need, with 283 current vacancies, an Interior Health spokesperson told iNFOnews.ca in an email on July 18.
An Interior Health had no comment on the patient's death and instead referred iNFOnews.ca to emergency health services.
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