Tyler Holte: What’s the Problem, Northern Health?

There have been several recent closures of Fort St. John Hospital’s emergency department. 

Adrian Dix, the Minister of Health, has commented that occasional closures are due to sick days rather than permanent staffing issues. The Minister proceeded to indicate that enough people are employed at the hospital. At least one of our local physicians has publicly commented that the Minister’s comments are false. Personally, I believe our local professionals over the Minister regarding the facts on the ground here in Fort St. John. I expect the Health Minister’s public lack of understanding about permanent staffing issues to be particularly aggravating for physicians and staff. It probably also reinforces a fear that they will never be listened to and that the problems will never be fixed.

Our emergency doctors and medical staff penned a letter to the editor explaining some of the challenges at the emergency and pleading with Northern Health and the Ministry of Health to address the issues. Northern Health has been strangely silent respecting the contents of this letter. Are they even listening to their physicians and medical staff regarding what the issues and staffing needs are? Are they obtaining feedback as to what drives retention problems? The fact the staff felt the need to submit a letter to the editor tells me they don’t feel listened to. I don’t want to hear more about recruitment efforts and incentives as its just a distraction from the apparent morale and retention issues. It’s time for Northern Health to take a good hard look inward about what they are doing wrong.

The loss of the reliability of our emergency department is a significant threat to our community. For anyone that has health issues, it is probably terrifying to live in a community where you don’t know if the emergency department will be open when you need it the most. I know of people moving away from our community due to the lack of reliable health care. I also expect this to be a deterrent to any professionals looking at moving to the area. 

Usually I believe that issues should be addressed via internal accountability processes. However, given the critical service at issue, I think Northern Health needs to provide the community fulsome and transparent answers. I predict we’ll get the typical response pointing to external pressures, such as the lack of workforce and the increasing demands (e.g., aging baby boomers (the largest generation) having increasing health issues). The pointing to external factors is the very typical and human way of distracting and avoiding accountability for what they are doing wrong internally. 

I appreciate the advocacy from our local community leaders and MLAs on the issue. I also appreciate all the courage from our medical professionals and staff that have spoken up on the issue. This is an unacceptable regular occurrence. I specifically think that Northern Health should commit to an independent investigation into the causes and drivers behind the emergency department closures and for its results to be published. I also think that investigation should be overseen by a panel of local leaders. That is what the community deserves: comprehensive and credible answers to why we no longer have a reliable emergency department.

For any like-minded community members, see here for a petition demanding an independent investigation.

Tyler Holte