(Picture credit score: Inside Well being)
By
SOUND OFF
Jul 28, 2022 | 12:11 PM
WEEK AFTER WEEK, THE BC LIBERALS have been calling on the NDP authorities to do one thing concerning the deteriorating state of our well being care system earlier than the worst occurs. Sadly, the very worst has occurred.
Up to now two weeks, two individuals have tragically misplaced their lives because of this disaster. A lady in North Vancouver handed away on a stretcher within the emergency room (ER) after ready two days for therapy. And right here within the Inside, an Ashcroft lady died of cardiac arrest as a result of her native ER was closed and there was no native ambulance out there to get to her in time. It is completely heartbreaking to listen to tales like this and I wish to prolong my deepest condolences to the households and associates of those two people.
We all know that BC’s well being care disaster is just not restricted to those two hospitals. In my driving of Cariboo-Chilcotin, we have witnessed it firsthand. The ER at 100 Mile District Common Hospital was closed twice in June, and late within the afternoon on Friday, July 22 we had been knowledgeable that the ER could be on diversion in a single day till the next Monday morning. Closures like this have gotten extra frequent in BC, and as we noticed with the 2 tragic fatalities, they’ll have direct penalties. The impacts are compounded in rural BC, the place a closed ER might imply individuals need to journey lots of of extra kilometers to seek out care.
Tragedies and closures like we have been seeing are past devastating, and it is merely unacceptable that that is the present actuality in our well being care system. Our well being care staff are doing all the things they’ll to maintain the system functioning, however our hospitals are fully overwhelmed and understaffed. There must be accountability, and actual motion to resolve this disaster. Once we take a look at how different provincial governments have responded to comparable conditions, we have seen examples of the minister accountable being changed. New Brunswick’s well being minister was lately fired following a traumatic demise within the ER. When will we see comparable accountability right here in BC?