The Mayor of Barriere is not happy with Interior Health after they announced the temporary closure of the health centre in his community because of Omicron-related COVID-19 staffing challenges.
Speaking on the NL Morning News, Ward Stamer says neither he nor staff at the Barriere Health Centre were given any notice about the closure, noting they only found out about it in a news release.
“I’m really concerned that I basically find it out second hand yesterday, late afternoon,” Stamer said. “I did not have any opportunity to discuss with Interior Health, any of the options that could have been available, whether it’s reduced hours or to have resources from other areas brought in even on a temporary basis.
“To me, to shut down the Health Centre for any length of time is unacceptable.”
Interior Health says staff in Barriere will be redeployed to neighbouring communities. People who need emergency care are being told to call 911 or head to the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital and Health Centre in Clearwater, 60 km away, or to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, 64 km away.
“I have a call into Chief Loring from the Simpcw First Nation and that’s going to seriously, negatively affect their community as well. It’s going to add another half an hour’s worth of time for medical assistance,” Stamer said. “We’ve also got a large senior population and a lot of them don’t like driving in the winter. We’ve also got low income housing people that don’t have vehicles”
“For [Interior Health] to turn around and do this without contacting us and at least giving us a proper explanation is disrespectful. That’s the best word I can use right now. It’s disrespectful and to say I’m angry would be an understatement.”
There will also be reduced service in Clearwater, Ashcroft, and Lillooet with Interior Health also rescheduling all non-urgent surgeries while reducing access to some outpatient services, primary care services, adult day programs and non-urgent home health services.
In a statement, IHA President and CEO, Susan Brown, said normal operations in these communities will resume as soon as possible.
“As we manage the Omicron-driven COVID-19 staffing impacts on the health system, Interior Health is proactively identifying services to adjust and relocate in order to maintain safe patient care,” she said. “We regret the impacts these service adjustments may cause and will be contacting patients, clients and residents directly to address care needs wherever possible.”
But Stamer went on to say that the move is both shortsighted and frustrating.
“We should have had at least the opportunity to speak with them to try to determine if it’s really that necessary to have a full closure?” he said. “Is there way to have a partial closure? And again, not being involved in the process, like I said, is disrespectful and mere words don’t explain how mad I am right now.”
Stamer told NL News he has no idea how long this temporary closure will last, pointing again to the lack of communication from Interior Health.
“That’s the problem. I have no start dates, no stop dates, nothing,” he added. “We’ve received nothing. I’ve received nothing, our CEO has received nothing.”
“Royal Inland Hospital has already got enough pressure in their emergency room, they don’t need a bunch of other people coming in there that could be treated on a secondary basis with things that aren’t emergencies.”
– With files from Jeff Andreas and Victor Kaisar
