100 Mile House’s healthcare system may not be perfect, but it is working.
That’s the message that Kelly Dillon, director of clinical operations for the northwest of Interior Health (IH), and Jill Zirnhelt, executive director of the Central Interior Rural Division of Family Practice, want to convey to the South Cariboo. The two sat down for an interview with the 100 Mile Free Press recently to discuss the state of healthcare in the community.
In 100 Mile House, Dillon noted that staffing levels have been largely stable over the last few months. Right now IH employs 80 nurses in 100 Mile House. The 100 Mile District Hospital has a full complement of nurses staffing its emergency and acute care departments, with no vacancies.
“Recruitment and retention is typically more challenging in rural communities, 100 Mile House has done really well for that,” Dillon remarked. “If you look at some of the other hospitals and communities they’re up to 50 per cent not filled.”
When asked why emergency room closures still happen, Dillon explained that they are typically the result of last-minute sick calls they were unable to find staff to cover. Whenever they need to cover that late night shift at the hospital she said they do a full call-out to every other facility in IH to find someone.
Such closures have raised concerns about the staffing numbers in the hospital among many members of the community. In social media posts online while many praise the hardworking staff at the hospital, others point out that they’re under a high level of stress and that the South Cariboo’s population has grown substantially in recent years.
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District of 100 Mile House Coun. Donna Barnett has voiced these concerns in two separate letters to B.C. health minister Adrian Dix, asking what he’s doing to recruit more healthcare professionals. Barnett notes that in addition to the local community, tourists and those using Highway 97 also rely on the hospital to be open during an emergency.
“Many are fearful if they have accidents or heart attacks or other emergencies they may not make it to Williams Lake or Kamloops. We have many worried seniors,” Barnett said. “Do we have to have someone lose their life before attention is paid?”
Dillon has worked for IH in various roles for the last 25 years and oversees healthcare workers in Clearwater, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Alexis Creek and Tatla Lake. She said IH is facing staffing shortages in many areas across the region, with the character and severity of the shortfalls varying from facility to facility. This can range from physicians to nurses and everything in between.
Zirnhelt echoed Dillon’s statement that 100 Mile House has been uniquely successful at retaining healthcare workers. Her organization is a not-for-profit dedicated to increasing access to primary care throughout the Cariboo-Chilcotin region including Williams Lake and 100 Mile House.
They support 45 doctors and family care practitioners with 14 primary care providers based out of the 100 Mile House area spread across three clinics. These include 12 doctors and two nurse practitioners, with an additional doctor assigned to the emergency room.
Another two doctors have been matched to 100 Mile House, via a provincial recruitment program that recruits international doctors, and are expected to arrive this fall. Aiding in recruitment are 100 Mile House’s doctors who reach out to colleagues from the U.K. and other countries to encourage them to move to the Cariboo.
“For physicians, the biggest thing is working with the international medical programs. They are two return-to-service programs that are bringing the bulk of service providers to our communities,” Zirnhelt explained.
The catch is that many of these doctors will leave the community after receiving their rural return to service after two to three years. Zirnhelt said that sometimes these doctors will end up settling in the community, but there are no requirements that they do so.
Because each doctor takes on different amounts of patients, Zirnhelt explained she doesn’t know exactly how many people in the South Cariboo have a family physician. Right now she said their unattached patient list numbers 5,600, 600 of whom are from 100 Mile House.
“I don’t think people have a solid understanding of what it means to be attached. You had a lot of healthcare providers in 100 Mile House that were there for decades and now they’re gone. I think people are having a hard time figuring out what to do because of that,” Zirnhelt said. “Going on the attachment list would give us a better understanding of what the population is so we know how many providers the community really needs.”
Those without a family physician can call 811 or go to healthlinkbc.ca/health-connect-registry to get onto the list and be matched with a healthcare provider. Zirnhelt said that as of Tuesday, April 16, the government has added a priority attachment list for people in urgent need of a doctor. With new health providers coming to 100 Mile House in the next few months Zirnhelt said now is a great time to get onto the list.
Dillon noted that they do their best to inform the public about how to access healthcare. She said hospital greeters employed in 100 Mile House often interact with people who don’t really have a medical emergency but don’t know where else to go to get care.
“Another thing people can do is register themselves for the IH Health portal… where they will get an email with their labwork, tell them what the results are and assist them in making a decision on whether they need a physician,” Dillon said. “We are working feverishly to make sure patients are supported. We’re looking to bring in more staff members and look at what patients need.”
The shortage of healthcare workers isn’t a problem unique to IH, Dillon noted. Across Canada and the world, there’s a demand for doctors with the World Health Organization predicting a global shortfall of 10 million healthcare workers by the year 2030.
“Being a nurse for so long we were hearing about this 15 years ago we were going to have a crash and I think it’s finally here, which is really unfortunate,” Dillon said.
This shortage is being driven by a mix of factors including experienced healthcare practitioners retiring or switching careers and nursing school enrollment numbers being down. Dillon noted that five years ago if you didn’t have a 90 per cent or higher you wouldn’t get into school, but now students are getting in with a 70 per cent average.
“They’re not seeing the same amount of interest anymore and you know what COVID-19 probably deterred people as well. Nursing schools right now just don’t have their seats filled,” Dillon remarked. “You can work on that on the local level by being in the high schools and talking about healthcare positions. Having students come and observe for a day to see if it’s what they’d like to do. We’re just trying to have high school students involved in any way we can so it’s not foreign to them.”