Northern B.C. has been hit hard by emergency closures again this summer. Between July 22 to July 28, there was at least one ER service interruption per day in the northern half of the province, prompting rallies in parts of the region.
The ER at the largest hospital in the area — serving nearly 30,000 residents — was shuttered five times in just one week.
But the crisis is also playing out country-wide, with no clear solutions in sight.
“There continue to be just unprecedented numbers of emergency department closures,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, an advocacy group that released last year’s headline-making tally of shutdowns in the province.
Nova Scotia…Our closest ER is open two days a week and never on weekends. The next closest are over an hour away and subject to closure often due to capacity and staffing issues. Ambulances are thus always out of area. It’s been like this for years.
Why are they closing?
Staff quit during or after COVID.
As to why that happens, I’m thinking you can only see so many people
- not doing the minimals of prevention,
- getting sick and demanding specialist time anyway, and then
- threatening the staff at every turn,
before you decide to switch to goat-farming and stop being a doctor or nurse.
(Like an EMT at 0830, I guess)
Mostly lack of staff.
I’ll bet Trudeau and Galen Westen have a solution in their pockets…
Tbf Trudeau gave the provinces $46.2 billion over 10 years for healthcare. Ontario alone received $3.1 billion in Feb 2024. The problem is the provinces refused to sign agreements locking that money into healthcare spending alone … so they can essentially spend it however they want. source
If you wanna point fingers at anyone, it’s each and ever premier who needs to answer the question of where all that money went.
