Due to a critical shortage of doctors, the emergency ward at Stuart Lake Hospital in Fort St. James will be closed on all
remaining weekdays in March.
Unless a locum can be found to relieve the burden on the lone doctor on duty, the hospital anticipates the emergency ward will be open only on the weekends of March 17 and March 24. The closure won't affect the hospital's X-ray and laboratory departments and the facility will be available to provide acute and longer-term care for patients.
"It's pretty much impacting emergency; there clearly is a challenge getting into the clinic until we have more physicians," said Michael MacMillan, chief operating officer for Northern Health.
"It is a difficult situation if you're living in Fort St. James, and that's why people are working so hard to try to come up with solutions that will be sustainable in the long run."
The Fort St. James Medical Clinic is also feeling the pinch after the husband and wife doctor team of Augustus and Shani van der Spuy moved their family practice to Vanderhoof at the end of February. That left just one full-time doctor - Paul Stent - to serve the community of 4,757 residents.
The health authority has known about the van der Spuys' plan to move to Vanderhoof for about two months.
"We kind of hoped we'd have more resources in place in terms of locum coverage, but it's turned out more of a challenge than we at first anticipated," said
MacMillan.
"We're working closely with medical staff in the region to try and mobilize locums, and locums from other parts of the province to provide as much coverage as possible.
The physicians, the municipality, First Nations in the area, as well as industry and the health authority are looking at what we can do to make it more sustainable in the future."
Fort St. James is located 152 kilometres northwest of Prince George, about 54 kilometres from the next closest hospital in Vanderhoof. Kathy Marchal, office manager of the Fort St. James clinic, said in the case of "life and limb" emergency, patients can be brought to Stuart Lake Hospital, where a nurse will arrange for transport by ambulance to Vanderhoof.
The van der Spuys, on average, saw 70 patients per week at the Fort St. James clinic. They are now there only one day per week. Doctors in Vanderhoof are seeing patents from Fort St. James temporarily, until a new doctor is hired.
"There's a large demand for the services. We're filled up by five minutes after 9 each morning," Marchal said.
"It's just regular appointments here, so if they have an emergency they should be
going to Vanderhoof.
"It's always a problem, because for years we've only had South African physicians and now we're no longer able to recruit out of South Africa. The [B.C.] College of Physicians and Surgeons aren't accepting the physicians out of South Africa unless they are fully qualified."
Doctor shortages in Mackenzie, Burns Lake, Fraser Lake and the Robson Valley have been ongoing concerns for Northern Health.
