Once again patients waiting to see a doctor at the Cariboo Memorial Hospital were told they would only see a doctor if they were dying.
Tyman Jobin said he went to the hospital with his seven-year-old foster daughter at 9 p.m. on Monday, April 8 because she had a severe stomach ache.
When they arrived, the waiting room was full and some of the people waiting had been there since noon.
A nurse did give them a vial for a urine sample and said it would show if there was something “super serious.”
“When 10 o’clock came around they told everybody they won’t see a doctor unless they are dying and we could wait six hours for the next doctor to come on,” Jobin said.
On Oct. 2, a sign posted outside the emergency room advised people the emergency room was closed, unless patient is imminently dying.
While everyone left the waiting room April 8 after the nurse spoke to them, Jobin and his daughter stayed until the nurse told them the urine test showed nothing serious.
“We never did get to see the doctor and there were a lot of sick people in there waiting who got sent home.”
The nurses gave them a number to phone and lodge a complaint and told them “it was ridiculous.”
“It was out of their control,” Jobin said. “They couldn’t believe it either. They did as much as they could for the people there.”
When asked about the wait times, Karen Cooper, Interior Health’s executive director clinical operations for the Cariboo and South Cariboo, said they continue to be consistent at Cariboo Memorial Hospital emergency department
“We continue to focus on staff recruitment and retention to stabilize the number of physicians, nurses and other medical professionals working at Cariboo Memorial Hospital,” she told Black Press Media. “We have short, medium and long-term strategies underway to stabilize staffing levels and we are working with the Central Interior Rural Division of Family Practice and our many other partners to move those initiatives forward.”
Cooper said emergency staff at CMH prioritize care for those with the most urgent and severe needs, which can lead to longer waits for those with non-emergency needs.
“We recognize that waiting in the emergency department can be stressful no matter the severity of a patient’s condition and we are doing everything we can to make those waits as brief as possible.”
Interior Health is expanding primary care in Williams Lake for those with non-emergency health-care needs.
Cooper explained this includes a new Primary Care Network Hub clinic opening its doors this spring and an Urgent and Primary Care Centre coming to Williams Lake early next year.
These new resources will help reduce non-emergency traffic to the emergency department and decrease wait times.
Jobin’s daughter is one of three children he and his wife have taken into their home to foster.
His family physician is at the All Nations Healing House on First Avenue North, which opened November 2022.
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