Interior Health says it is working through recruitment challenges at the Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt, which has seen numerous temporary closures in recent months.
IH Executive Director of Clinical Operations Kathy Doull says through numerous conversations with ER staff in Merritt, they have been able to identify where the issues lie when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff.
“We are looking at what we need to do both to support the teams on the ground to be working as well as to recruit new people,” she explained.
“We’ve had consultations with staff and we have added additional positions into the site, which will improve our ability to recruit; and what we’ve heard from staff, will also improve their ability to do their work effectively within the emergency room.”
Doull says their short-term strategy is to fill staffing gaps by using physician locums, pulling in staff from other parts of the Health Authority, and bringing in agency staff.
“Then, our longer-term goal is to make sure that we can recruit into those positions; the extra positions we have added is what we’ve heard from staff is necessary for us to be able to effectively recruit people to stay in those roles.”
The Emergency Room in Merritt has been closed roughly nine times since just before Christmas, due to both nursing and physician shortages.
While the number of unfilled shifts varies from day to day, Doull says there are roughly four nursing positions vacant right now.
“We don’t know the actual number of physician vacancies, but we do have a robust locum coverage for physicians; it’s the short-term coverage that we are running into issues.”
She explains that the lack of healthcare workers to draw from is often the main reason why rural ERs are often forced to close.
“When a physician or a nurse is not available due to illness or other unforeseen circumstances, it can be difficult to fill that shift on short notice,” she explained.
“It’s probably further challenging when there is bad weather as it limits our ability to bring in an alternate team member from another area of Interior Health, which did happen this past winter.”
Meanwhile, Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz says there is an announcement coming soon from IH to address their ER situation.
“There is an announcement — I do believe — that she (Kathy Doull) is going to be making pretty quick about some staffing changes, that is starting to fix some of our problems.”
Back on March 13, a lack of doctors was cited as the reason for a 25-hour ER closure in Merritt, it came less than 48 hours after it reopened following a similar closure.
Prior to the ongoing temporary closures at the Emergency Room in Merritt, the Helmcken Memorial Hospital faced well over two-dozen temporary closures at it’s ER in Clearwater, which were eventually stabilized through scheduling changes.
