Northern Health executive responds to Tumbler Ridge Health Centre on-call cuts protest

TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. — A Northern Health executive has cited physician shortages as the reason behind a reduction in on-call and weekend ER hours at the Tumbler Ridge Health Centre following a weekend protest.

While the ER’s regular hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. are unaffected, the modified schedule limits on-call hours to 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, removing an on-call service at evenings and weekends.

A protest outside Tumbler Ridge Town Hall took place on Saturday, where residents, community leaders and Peace River South MLA Larry Neufeld called for the full restoration of on-call and weekend ER hours and had a petition signed by more than 1,800 residents.

Neufeld wrote on Facebook: “The passion in the voices of speakers emphasizing the vital role of frontline healthcare workers in Tumbler Ridge was truly uplifting.

“…I am proud to take this outcry and the community’s voices to Victoria.”

In an interview with Energeticcity.ca, Lisa Zetes-Zanatta, Northern Health’s vice president of clinical operations, said the changes have been implemented because the community faces a sharp decline in available physicians.

“We generally have four physicians at any given time,” Zetes-Zanatta said. “We are now down to two and we know that we have another resignation coming forward.”

She said Tumbler Ridge “never had a 24/7 emergency department” and believes some describing the change as “closing the ER after hours” has caused confusion.

“Tumbler Ridge residents had and continue to have access to emergency care around the clock through a combination of regular hours at the health centre and emergency care access by 911,” she said.

Before the on-call cuts, after-hours emergencies required calling 911, after which a nurse would be called in to assess the patient and decide if a doctor needed to be brought to the health centre, a process Zetes-Zanatta told Energeticcity.ca created delays in care.

Under the current model, she said, two ambulances and a mix of primary care and advanced care paramedics now respond to emergencies in the community. 

Zetes-Zanatta told Energeticcity.ca this paramedic coverage allows for faster response times and advanced medical support during transport to hospitals in larger centres.

According to Zetes-Zanatta, Tumbler Ridge averaged fewer than five after-hours calls per week before the change, and most cases did not require hospital-level treatment.

However, on September 6th, shortly after Northern Health’s announcement, a person died while en route from Tumbler Ridge to the Dawson Creek and District Hospital.

Speaking to Energeticcity.ca after the incident, Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka said: “I’ll be frank: do I know personally if the doctor and the nurse were there, would it have been a different outcome? We don’t know. Nobody can answer that right now.”

However, he believes the new model is “putting lives at risk.”

Zetes-Zanatta acknowledged concerns in the community about the lack of a clear timeline for when full service could return, but said recruitment challenges across the region and beyond make it difficult.

“We consider the current model temporary while we continue to recruit physicians,” she said.

“We’re actively exploring opportunities to address some of the concerns that came forward, not just for emergency care, but with respect to access to primary care, which is very limited in the community.”

Later, she said: “We can’t give a time when things will change.

“That will all be based on our recruitment model and who we’re able to get to come to the community.”