The head of the BC Nurses Union is not surprised to hear of a weekend closure at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops due to a nursing shortage.
Pediatric services at the hospital were shutdown due to a lack of available nurses, with unconfirmed reports also suggesting that maternity services were also affected this weekend.
BC Nurses Union President Aman Grewal tells NL News a perpetual shortfall of nurses, combined with growing fatigue from COVID, and the opioid crisis, is pushing nurses to their limits.
“We have this culmination of all three events colliding at the same time and its coming to the forefront and the public is finally becoming aware that this is taking place, and sadly, it is affecting people,” Grewal said.
Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Grewal says this is an issue that isn’t going to go away on its own.
“We need to provide resources for them. The government needs to provide supports and offer them time and increase their access to time off when they are off sick,” she said.
“We normally would not have seen this many deaths in our career, and to be faced with that daily, on an ongoing basis does take a toll.”
Terry Lake, the CEO of the BC Care Providers Association, told NL News that the healthcare sector in general is under a lot of stress these days when it comes to staffing.
Grewal says this weekend at RIH leaves them with a lot of questions for both the province and Interior Health, including why more nurses aren’t being hired, and why those who may have been available – even on a part-time basis – weren’t called in to fill the gaps.
In a statement to NL News, Interior Health says the closure was the result of limited unforeseen staffing availability. It says the obstetric portion of the unit reopened Sunday while the pediatric unit reopened Monday morning.
It says when a particular unit or hospital is facing staffing challenges, the priority is “to ensure that all patients get the care they need in the right location” and that “there are various situations where patients are moved to alternate facilities.”
“In this case, a number of patients were moved to alternate units and four were transferred to alternate facilities,” the statement said, but did not reference details about any of the cases, citing privacy reasons.
“We recognize this was not ideal and concerning for those who were impacted and we are sorry we had to take these necessary steps. These decisions were made in consultation with our pediatrician and other physicians with the safety of mothers and children being the focus in each case.”
– With files from Victor Kaisar
