(Opinion) ‘Shovels to expand care home must hit ground this year’

FORT ST. JOHN. B.C. — My name is Mary Lou Beattie and I presently reside in an assisted living (assisted meaning only meals provided) apartment in Fort St. John. 

We are a ‘family’ of 16 older residents all with varied histories of farming, ranching, accounting, healthcare, etc.

We are a group all wondering what the next phase in our life will be. This building is what some would call a stepping stone to Peace Villa.

We (Julie, Neil, Iona, Gordon one, Cathy, Otto, Gordon two, Sam, Dorothy, Susan, Ruth, Heinz, Marilyn, Gerry, Wilf and myself) are certainly satisfied with the type of life here with each of us doing our own thing while at the same time longing for the home each of us left behind.

Now in 2026, healthcare is a big part of a national crisis. And Fort St. John’s Northern Health has many problems, one being overcrowding at our hospital. It is time that the B.C. health minister seriously addresses this growing problem.

Instead, our government, in all its pomp and glory, decided to delay the ground-breaking of a new seniors complex.

This was a major setback to all the individuals who fought long and hard to make this happen. It is unbearable to absorb the fact that a few in Victoria can decide this outcome.

Does the health minister, Josie Osborne, have aging parents in a facility or at home? Has she ever walked the halls of hospitals and realized how many elderly patients are being cared for in the medical and surgical wards?

On her recent trip to Fort St. John, did she and her entourage even enter the hospital and if so, did she see all the older patients on the second floor?

Did she take note of the fact that originally it was one patient to a room and that now that single room has to accommodate two patients? Did she realize how crowded the rooms are now, with space being used for an extra bedside table, oxygen installation and privacy screen?

Did Ms Osborne also take note of older people struggling to do simple little things because the nurses cannot keep up with those call bells?

The hospital staff do an amazing job under these circumstances but there is not enough of them to cope.

I realized this when my husband was hospitalized. My family pitched in and did what they could for him one cold January. I saw first-hand the effects the cold weather had on our experience. It did not turn out well that week.

In January 2018, each day and seemingly each shift were short at least one nurse. The absent staff – either from sickness or other situations related to the -30 C temperatures – resulted in a massive overload of telephone calls from worried relatives for information.

The staff could not keep up. Trying to contact anyone was impossible, as a nursing shortage left telephone calls unanswered and bedside call bells delayed or unanswered.

When my husband’s condition worsened I tried for several hours to contact someone, hoping that someone at the desk or in emergency or anywhere in that hospital would pick up the phone because I had uneasy feelings that he was losing consciousness while talking to him on the phone.

I was two hours away and the temperature had plummeted to -35 C in the evening hours.

The outcome was something we dreaded. And I’m sure our story is not the only one for that particular time. Yet it seems that overcrowding is even worse now.

People are waiting such long hours, some of those ending in the death of patients. Some are saying that the health situation is in crisis mode and it could very well be.

I believe hospital board members, auxiliary volunteers and even Fort St. John council members should all tour our hospital and realize how important it is to bombard our health minister with e-mails and letters.

This new care home is an absolute necessity and shovels must hit the ground this year. Please take 30 or so seconds to say in an e-mail: ‘We need a new care home to be started this year.’ 

The e- mail address is HLTH.Minister@gov.bc.ca. The mailing address is Minister of Health, P.O.box 9050 Stn. Prov. Govt, Victoria, B.C., V8W9E2.