BC Rural Health Network – Paul Adams – May 28 2025
Communities and residents across British Columbia are calling for urgent action to address the ongoing emergency room closures in rural areas.
The BC Rural Health Network continues to hear from members and residents throughout the province who are offering constructive ideas to change the status quo. While we acknowledge that our healthcare systems are complex, fragmented, and often slow to respond, we also believe that more can and must be done to keep ER doors open and ensure timely care for all British Columbians.
Suggested Immediate and Short-Term Actions to Address Rural ER Closures
1. Implement an “All Hands on Deck” Approach
- Allow paramedics, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and advanced first aid providers to support emergency rooms under virtual supervision when doctors or nurses are unavailable.
- Develop standardized protocols and emergency scope-of-practice waivers to enable this safely and effectively.
2. Enable Province-Wide Hospital Privileges
- Remove bureaucratic barriers that prevent physicians with ER privileges in one health authority from working in another during times of crisis.
- Create a rapid credentialing process for emergency redeployment.
3. Deploy Rotational Emergency Response Teams
- Form mobile, multi-disciplinary medical teams that can be sent to high-risk rural ERs facing imminent closure.
- Include professionals from various disciplines and mandate short-term rotations during critical staffing shortages.
4. Mandate Participation from Professional Bodies
- Require regulated health professions to participate in coordinated, province-wide workforce planning.
- Encourage professional colleges to prioritize service deployment based on public need, not personal preference.
5. Improve Working Conditions and Team-Based Support
- Accelerate improvements to workplace safety, shift flexibility, and mental health supports.
- Ensure every rural facility has access to interdisciplinary, team-based care; not just through PCNs and Divisions, but by rethinking how services are managed and delivered locally.
6. Establish Universal Electronic Personal Health Records
- Fast-track the creation of a patient-owned, province-wide EHR system that allows for seamless care coordination between facilities, regions, and providers.
7. Expand Virtual Care
- Extend rural ER capacity through real-time virtual physician support for on-site clinical staff.
8. Communicate
- The public needs to be engaged with and heard. Inclusion of community voices in their healthcare systems needs to return to the management of the local services that support them.
- A public notification system must be deployed to provide residents with notice that a facility is closed.
9. Patient Navigation and Clinician Support
- Hire and train non-clinical support workers (e.g., navigators, admin, social service liaisons) to offload non-medical tasks from clinicians and patients.
+1. Engage Youth and Schools in Rural Health Workforce Development
- Start early by integrating rural health and wellness education in schools.
- Provide scholarships, rural training streams, and local mentorship to grow a sustainable rural healthcare workforce from within.
+1. Reframe Efficiency: Focus on Outcomes, Not Cost-Cutting
- Refocus healthcare policy on outcomes rather than austerity. Align administrative incentives with patient outcomes and client satisfaction. When care quality and access improve, cost savings will follow naturally.
- Reduce repeat visits and prevent avoidable hospitalizations by ensuring patients have timely access to appropriate, coordinated care. Investing in early intervention and continuity of care leads to better health outcomes and a more efficient system.
Yesterday CTV reported that rural BC has faced nearly 200 closures so far in 2025!
‘Unprecedented’: Nearly 200 ER closures in two B.C. health regions this year
Published: May 27, 2025 at 10:19PM EDT
There are growing concerns over lives being put at risk over the lack of emergency health care in some B.C. communities, say local health authorities.
Interior and Northern Health combined have seen close to 200 temporary emergency room closures just this year.
On Tuesday evening, Interior Health issued a statement announcing the closure of the Lillooet Hospital and Health Centre from 7 p.m. Tuesday until 8 a.m. Wednesday,
Patients can access care in Kamloops at the Royal Inland Hospital in the meantime, it recommended.
It marked the latest in a series of closures at the hospital, in addition those at the ER at Lakes District Hospital and Health Centre in Burns Lake, which has faced 30 closures since January.
“This is unprecedented here as far as closures go,” said Village of Burns Lake Mayor Henry Wiebe.
“People are worried. The seniors especially are worried,” he explained.
The next closest emergency room is an hour-and-a-half drive away in Vanderhoof.
“When we have the diversions, that puts an extra load on the Vanderhoof and Smithers ER’s, which then it’s just a domino effect from there,” said Wiebe, who said he recently met with B.C.’s health minister.
Northern Health alone has seen 125 temporary emergency room closures this year, 38 of them at Mackenzie and District Hospital.
