B.C. doctor calls for northern psychiatric hospital

A B.C. doctor is calling for a psychiatric hospital to be established in northern B.C. because she says long-term, secure psychiatric care needs are affecting the health-care system overall. 

In an online petition, Barb Kane, the head of psychiatry at the University Hospital of Northern B.C., says a "critical" lack of access to psychiatric care is putting strain on the community at large, including families, police and hospitals. 

"I've come to the conclusion that a psychiatric hospital is an essential part of the health-care system," she told CBC's Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk. 

"It's not an option."

Kane started looking into what kinds of mental health resources could benefit Prince George, B.C., in 2018. She said there were two people in the University Hospital's psychiatric ward: one of whom had been there for "the better part of" five years and another who had been in and out for three.

It was challenging to discharge them, she said, because the existing supports in the north didn't meet their needs. 

"It was contributing actually to overcapacity in the hospital," Kane said. 

She said people with severe mental illness often get put in other wards, disrupting patients throughout the hospital. In many cases, patients are discharged when they "really shouldn't be."

The Northern Health Authority did not return CBC's request for comment. 

An ongoing health-care staffing shortage has plagued all of B.C., including the north, for many months. 

However, Kane says from on-the-ground experience, she believes there are staff who would like to work in a dedicated psychiatric hospital. 

"I think there's more staff out there who have abandoned working in hospitals because of the violence and the overcrowding," she said. 

Riverview Hospital closure

Kane has been practising in Prince George since 1990 and has had access to psychiatric hospital care in the past.

Patients with severe illnesses were previously sent to the now-shuttered Riverview Hospital in the Lower Mainland, Kane said, where they could stay as long as needed.

"It probably went from two years to indefinite because some people don't get better. I mean, it's like any severe disease. Not everybody gets better."

Riverview Hospital operated from the early 1900s until 2012. At one point, more than 4,300 patients were staying there. The hospital was the subject of some controversy, including alleged sterilization in the 1960s and earlier and the use of electroshock therapy, for which it received approval in 2001.

Now, Kane says, there's nowhere to send those patients.

CBC contacted Fraser Health for a comment on the closure of Riverview Hospital, but the health authority declined.

Kane said the reaction to her petition has been positive. As of Thursday morning, more than 800 people had signed it.

When CBC asked the province whether this was something it would consider, it did not answer.

Instead, it provided a list of investments it has made in mental health and addictions care in northern B.C. in recent months, including a new tower at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. that it says will more than double the number of beds for surgical, mental health and cardiac services.

That project is not expected to be completed until the summer of 2031.