Loss of emergency service will put lives at risk, says St. Alban's mayor
Garrett Barry | CBC News | Posted: April 13, 2020 10:56 AM | Last Updated: April 13, 2020
Emergency services being sent to Harbour Breton or Grand Falls-Windsor
The mayor of St. Alban's says the loss of a doctor — and emergency medical services —at the Bay d'Espoir Community Health Centre has put the entire region at risk.
Emergency services shut down at the clinic on Sunday morning, and residents of the area are now facing a long drive or ambulance ride to hospitals in either Harbour Breton or Grand Falls-Windsor.
Nurse practitioners, lab work and X-rays will still be available at the clinic, but St.Alban's Mayor Gail Hoskins says without a doctor, the community is feeling an added stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says emergency services at the clinic have saved many lives, and she predicts losing them will be a disaster.
"It's very drastic, saying lives are going to be lost, but that is the reality that we have here," she said. "And if we don't soon get a solution, there's going to be many lives that are going to be lost and it will be very unfortunate."
According to Andrew Hunt, the chief of staff at Central Health, the clinic was forced to close over the weekend because managers could not find any locum physicians — fill-in physicians — to keep it open.
"Obviously this is a very difficult decision, our intentions were not to have this site without a physician," he said. "But it has been extremely difficult to ensure the maintenance of a physician in this area."
Health Minister John Haggie added on Monday afternoon that a physician who was practising at the clinic revealed they could no longer practise on Thursday, just before the holiday weekend.
According to Hunt, the COVID-19 pandemic means there are significantly fewer locum doctors available to fill in the gaps.
"it's looking very bleak, I'll be honest with you, with regards to finding sufficient numbers of locums right now," he said.
"There's no bodies out there to pool from. We can't make physicians. So it's — if we don't have them, we don't have them. If we did, we would not be having this conversation."
While people can go to the hospital in Grand Falls-Windsor, patients who call an ambulance will now be taken to Harbour Breton, just over 100 kilometres away by road.
According to Hoskins, there is concern in the Bay d'Espoir region that patients who are transferred to Harbour Breton are going to be quickly assessed and told they have to travel again to Grand Falls-Windsor, where there are more doctors and more services available.
"Now we're like, four hours from the care that we need," said Rhonda Harding, who owns and operates South Coast Home Care in the Bay d'Espoir region.
"I truly believe that people will die prematurely because of this decision."
Haggie told reporters on Monday that the Department of Health is discussing those ambulance protocols, to see if patients can go straight to Grand Fall-Windsor.
Harding says she also has other questions about what will happen to her clients after they are released from hospital.
"If they're deemed well, they have to find their own transportation back from Harbour Breton," she said. "That's going to prove very, very trying. For one thing, they're not even going to be able to afford to do that."
Officials exploring virtual care
Hoskins says recruitment and retention of doctors has been an issue in St. Alban's for a long time, and she is pushing Central Health to finally find a solution to the problem.
"We've had a lot of Band-Aid solutions," she said. "We've gone through too many boxes of Band-Aids right now. It's time to fix the wound. They keep telling us we need a different model. Well, I've been here for over two years and this issue with our doctors has been ongoing for many, many years."
MHA Elvis Loveless, who represents the Bay d'Espoir region, said he has been in contact with the health minister to advocate for the community and try to find a solution, but said there are no easy answers to the issue.
Both Hunt and Haggie say that virtual care — where doctors consult with patients over a video chat, or via telephone — could be a medium-term solution that could help restart some services at the clinic, while the health authority is recruiting new doctors.
Hunt said virtual care could be rolling out in some situations in about a month, and could be an option for Bay d'Espoir.
"We actually do have several committees designed now to look at virtual care in light of COVID-19," he said. "But much of what we do is now considering expansion of this beyond COVID-19. There are several physicians and staff members within Central Health that are now designing these models and are hopeful to have them up and running.
"I realize that is not ideal in many emergency situations but it certainly is better than having no access to physicians whatsoever."