He said some physicians are working 14 ER shifts a month to try and keep the doors open, and “they’re struggling to even do that during the daytime.”
Port McNeill Hospital, about 40 kilometres from Port Hardy, is the only acute-care hospital ER in the region open 24 hours a day.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said $30 million in new operating and capital funding recently provided for the Mount Waddington region includes incentives for staff retention and referral, incentives to travel to fill shifts, renovations to staff accommodations, and the hiring of 10 additional protection officers to improve safety.
The funding will also prioritize a new daily shuttle between hospitals for patients and staff, a mobile CT diagnostic service, four new long-term care beds at the Port Hardy Hospital, hospital upgrades, and increased support for home-health, mental health, substance use, and home support services.
Labour shortages aren’t just being felt in emergency wards but in maternity services, medical assistance in dying, long term care facilities and outreach services, said Greggain.
Eighteen months ago, the same doctors and nurses felt they had enough hands to do the work “and now they’re absolutely desperate,” he said.
When a physician has to do three jobs — be in the hospital, provide long-term care and work in a clinic — there can be a sense of always failing to do one’s best, said Greggain, who does mostly rural locums across the province, as well as the occasional shift at the downtown Victoria Urgent and Primary Care Centre.
