The closing of Saanich Peninsula Hospital’s emergency department on Saturday night due to staff shortages — diverting all urgent cases to Victoria General and Royal Jubilee — is a general example of the pressure on hospitals, B.C.’s health minister said.
“It doesn’t happen very often, but it happened in this case,” said Dix, adding the province is generally seeing a high response and a high use of emergency health services combined with the challenges posed by Delta variant COVID-19 cases.
“It’s certainly a significant concern to me,” Dix said of the closing.
“Obviously, we weren’t happy that it had to be done, but it needed to be done in those circumstances, and I think folks did the right job.”
Patients were diverted to Royal Jubilee and Victoria General from 7 p.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday because of a shortage of nurses.
The baseline staffing for the emergency department is four registered nurses and overnight on Saturday the hospital was short two registered nurses, Island Health said.
“Unfortunately, diversions occur from time to time due to a variety of factors, including staff illness,” said Island Health spokesman Andrew Leyne.
“Like many jurisdictions, Island Health is challenged by the health-care worker shortages across Canada,” said Leyne.
“Diversion is a last resort, and we try our very best to cover shifts but there are times, despite these efforts, that these temporary shortages occur.”
Dix said Island Health made the right decision for the safety of patients and to provide the right care to patients “and I support them in taking that decision.” It’s a rare occurrence, he said.
The health minister touted Urgent and Primary Care Centres that have opened across B.C. to match residents without doctors to a primary care practitioner and to take pressure off hospitals by caring for people who need urgent but not emergency care within 24 hours.
Dix is hopeful such staff-shortage closings aren’t required again.
“I think in general, across the board, our health care teams are doing an extraordinary job under very difficult circumstances — two public health emergencies right now, the overdose public health emergency, the COVID-19 public health emergency — and a significant increase in the utilization of services,” said Dix.
A B.C. Nurses’ Union representative was not available to speak to the shortage on Monday.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
