At least that is what it seems when it comes to the emergency room crisis with our local hospital. Our ER remains closed four nights per week and we have still only two doctors serving the community on an emergency basis on top of their already fully filled work days. How long are these two gentlemen expected to continue like this? I’m no doctor, but I sure as heck bet they are completely exhausted. Much gratitude to both of them for caring enough to continue.
I know that there are people from our community working tirelessly to come up with solutions to rectify both our immediate ER crisis and to find long term solutions to our hospital issues. Volunteers, community leaders and industry spending hours upon hours researching and attending countless number of meetings...understandable, our community is in crisis and these individuals are doing all they can to help.
What I don’t really understand is WHY.
The Interior Health Authority mission is to—and I quote directly from their website,
“Promote healthy lifestyles and provide needed health services in a timely, caring, and efficient manner, to the highest professional and quality standards.”
Ahem... exhausting the current resources (our two doctors) is not timely, nor caring or efficient. Sending patients for care well over an hour away is not timely, nor caring or efficient. (Remember the golden hour?)
Forcing people who already pay for services not even being rendered to come up with more funding, more expenses (the provision of locum housing) and having to deal with more stress is not timely, nor caring and by no means is it efficient.
Cutting services from rural communities while larger centers are getting new wings, new equipment and even new hospitals does not seem timely, nor caring or efficient.
I do understand that there are shades of grey in every situation, but there is always a solution if you pay close enough attention. Princeton and Area H have come up with funding, housing and a list of doctors willing to provide coverage in the ER. Yet our ER remains closed four nights a week.
Would someone please explain to me, how and when the almighty dollar become more valuable than a human life!