With Northern Health’s inability to attract enough new health-care workers in the past five years, the MLA for Peace River North is calling on the provincial government to scrap health authorities like Northern Health and return to a system of 52 regional boards with local representation.
The call comes after the emergency room at the Hudson’s Hope Health Centre was temporarily closed for a third consecutive day.
Tuesday’s diversion was the 21st closure in the past 56 days in Hudson’s Hope. Last year, the emergency room in Chetwynd was shut down 40 times. There is no indication the frequency of closures at the clinic and others in the area will slow.
Travous Quibell, mayor of Hudson’s Hope, says the situation escalated last fall when the district lost its second physician. “We’re down one physician, and that’s putting a strain on the emergency department,” he said.
Since then, the priority has been placed on the remaining doctor to provide primary care, often forcing the emergency department to close. “We understand the mechanics of why these closures are happening, and that a single doctor can’t deal with patient load,” Quibell said.
Jordan Kealy, MLA for Peace River North, says major reform of B.C.’s health-care system is needed.
Kealy says he has been advocating in the B.C. legislature to address staffing shortages, adding, “When we finally get the NDP out, we need to clear these health authority boards.”
Kealy says the staffing shortage has developed over the past 20 years. “Rather than being proactive, we’re now in a reactive situation, and it’s our families that are going to be caught in the crossfire,” he said.
Northern Health’s website, which provides status updates on emergency department closures, is adding to the frustration. The automated system tells residents the Health Centre’s ER will reopen the next day after each temporary closure.
Even when Northern Health expects the ER will not reopen, the website automatically tells residents it will. As of Tuesday, the ER had been closed for three straight days. Quibell says the website needs a human touch to ensure the correct information reaches those who need it the most.
Northern Health was contacted for a statement but no response was received before publication.
The province recruited 30 health-care professionals to northern B.C. between March 3035 and January 2026, including 7 doctors, 20 nurses and 1 nurse practitioner.
Northern Health has said it is actively recruiting skilled health-care staff to the region.
-with files from Noah Abel CJDC
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gee some people who know how to run heath services . these people are absolutely out of if there league way over there heads
Have been waiting for ct scan results 6 months
Between March when? 3035 hasn’t happened yet please proof read.
Back in early Covid (2021-2022) I remember seeing a headline saying Northern Health was supposed to be investigated for something along the lines of misappropriation of funds or something like that by the directors/management but the investigation was put on hold due to Covid priorities. As far as I can find out the investigation still hasn’t happened but the discrepancies still exist!
Something needs to be done. With the amount of Industry in the area, this isn't acceptable. When the count is being done to tally up how many people live in this area, thats not counting all of the people travelling in for work in the area.
This leaves a pretty big gap when you're looking for both emergency care as well as short notice walk in or same day appointments.
If the Chetwynd Hospital is only reporting 40 closures in the ER for the past year They would be doing better than in 2022, where they were stopping you at the door at 6pm and telling you they didn't have the staff for that night so the doors where closing then.
The Dr's. And nurses in the hospital system up here in Chetwynd, Tumbler Ridge and Hudson Hope, have their hands tied behind their backs in this system and it's not fair to them either.
I hope some people have the ambition to follow through with the work it'll take to make the changes needed. This is our families care that's at stake. How many people will not get the medical care they need in time because of this poor planning, funding shortages and lack of follow through?