NRRM holds special council meeting to address recent hospital diversion

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM) recently held a special council meeting to address the emergency department diversion on December 26th at the Fort Nelson General Hospital. 

Northern Health representatives, NRRM staff, and members of the public attended the meeting held on Tuesday. 

At approximately 4:30 p.m. on December 26th, Northern Health announced the diversion would begin at 6:30 p.m. and remain in effect until 7 a.m. on the 27th. During this time, impacted patients would be diverted to the Fort St. John Hospital. 

During Tuesday’s meeting, NRRM Chief Administrative Officer Scott Barry disclosed that the reason for the diversion was because a hospital staff member had called in sick, and Northern Health was unable to find a replacement. 

“You go back a week ago, or a couple of weeks ago, when you heard the word diversion, or if the doctors heard the word diversion [the response was] ‘absolutely not, that’s not happening,’” said Barry. 

“At the same time, you can’t wave a magic wand and have a registered nurse appear.”

Health facilities within the Peace region have been forced to divert due to staffing issues in the past, but fortunately, the majority are no further than approximately 140 kilometres from each other. 

The distance between the Fort Nelson General Hospital and the Fort St. John Hospital is approximately 384 kilometres. 

The public in attendance at the meeting expressed a wide range of concerns, including Northern Health’s next steps to ensure a diversion at Fort Nelson General Hospital doesn’t reoccur. 

Northern Health said it will meet regularly with BC Emergency Health Services and other local agencies to develop solutions, mitigate the impacts of diversions, and prevent them from occurring in the future. 

Angela De Smit, chief administrative officer for Northern Health, says because of the distance to the next nearest community, it has “been the historical philosophy” to avoid diverting at Fort Nelson General Hospital at all costs. 

“In the past, we have typically been able to find a replacement, and scramble, and be able to continue the service,” said De Smit. 

“But, in this one case, on December 26th, we were not able to find a registered nurse to come up.”

De Smit said one critical-care patient was successfully transferred out of Fort Nelson, and a maintenance worker was brought in to support nurses so that they could focus on hospital patients without dealing with the public. 

“[The maintenance worker] informed patients coming to the entrance that the emergency department wasn’t open and that we could call 9-1-1 for them but that we could not provide any more services than that,” said De Smit. 

“My understanding from talking with him is that the community members were quite upset about it, but there did not seem to be any negative outcomes, fortunately, as a result of it.”

The special regional council meeting can be viewed below.