Efforts made to keep Prince Rupert ER open amid staff shortage

Northern Health says it is working non-stop to keep the emergency room at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital open, as concern grows following closures at the emergency department in the B.C. port city.

The health authority has said an unconfirmed number of physicians will soon be leaving the area, and many residents fear this will create more pressure on the remote city’s already-strained health-care system. The nearest emergency room outside of Prince Rupert is an almost 150-kilometre drive to the east, in Terrace.

Julia Pemberton, Northern Health’s senior operations officer for the Northwest Health Services Delivery Area, stopped short of saying the city is experiencing a health-care crisis, but acknowledged the current level of care is concerning. 

“It’s a really tough time. There’s simply not enough people and the people who are here have a lot on their shoulders, so we need to support them as well as recruit,” Pemberton said.  

Northern Health has confirmed a shortage of doctors has forced Prince Rupert’s only hospital to close its emergency department overnight several times this month alone. 

Tish Losier said her husband, Joe Budnisky, had to be rushed to hospital after suffering a severe epileptic seizure earlier this month while the only emergency room in the city was closed

“It was absolutely terrifying. He couldn’t get the medicine that he needed,” Losier told CBC News.

Losier said when the emergency room opened, staff gave Budnisky pain medication and X-rays, and sent him home shortly after.

“He is usually admitted, at least overnight, when he has episodes like this,” she said. “But a nurse told me that they didn’t have enough beds and they got completely swamped as soon as the ER opened up.”

Pemberton said she understands the frustration of many Prince Rupert residents, which has come to a boil on social media channels. 

“I just want to validate people’s concerns … this is not the way we want our health-care system to work,” she said. 

“I totally acknowledge that and empathize with people’s concerns and that’s why we want to do everything we can to fix it.” 

Burnout has become the main concern for physicians in Prince Rupert, according to Pemberton, who said the three eight-hour shifts the health authority must cover each day to keep the emergency room open are currently being shared by seven physicians. 

She said 46 per cent of shifts in February were covered by out-of-town doctors called in to help keep the ER open.

Local elected officials have called the emergency department staffing situation a “crisis,” with Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond calling health-care recruitment “mission critical” for the city, First Nations and local industry. 

Pemberton said the recruitment struggles are a reflection of what she said is a broader “shift in the way people are making decisions about where they want to live.” 

She pointed to a March 1 provincial announcement that promised $30,000 in bonuses for nurses who sign on to stay for more than two years in northern communities, and a retention incentive paid every four months to each Northern Health employee in Prince Rupert, an initiative that began over a year ago. 

Another frustration for residents has been that when there are closures the notices are last-minute. 

“The notifications come out when they come out because we’re trying up until the last minute to problem-solve, to fly people up, to get someone on the plane to see if someone from another centre can get here in time,” Pemberton said. 

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