No emergency health service in Kaslo this weekend as IHA shuts down operation due to limited physician availability
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily
Residents will be without emergency care in Kaslo this weekend.
Interior Health has announced that the emergency department at the Victorian Community Health Centre in Kaslo will be closed Friday evening May 31, until Monday morning, June 3.
“I’m not too surprised,” said Kaslo Mayor Greg Lay, who was unaware of the closure. “Negotiations are still going on between the IHA and the doctors. There are issues …the IH is working on contract arrangements.”
“This is related to ongoing challenges with the physicians,” said IH communications officer Karl Hardt in Trail.
In September 2012, it became clear that Kaslo was going to have a problem staffing enough doctors to keep the emergency services open 24/7.
As a result, the IH announced it was going to reduce emergency services to 9-5 during weekdays only. But an outcry from the community convinced IH to continue 24/7 services and form a working committee to help keep the emergency room open.
However, in the process, the health centre lost its two doctors. Contracts for the staff doctors were not renewed earlier this year.
Thus, the IH and the village of Kaslo partnered to recruit new doctors.
Dr. Annemarie DeKoker was hired to replace one of the doctors, but the health centre is still short staffed according to IH acting administrator Cheryl Whittleton.
“There are vacancies in Kaslo and we are still recruiting,” she said.
Lay views the weekend closure as a bump in the road to obtaining 24/7 emergency care through community involvement. The town itself has been recruiting doctors by touting the beauty and desirability of living in Kaslo.
This model worked in Nakusp said Whittleton.
“The village of Nakusp has been very active with recruitment,” she said. “They bought a home for the last physician.
“The problem is these communities are competing with each other.”
The real problem, everywhere, though, is that there is a shortage of physicians nationwide, said Whittleton.
“It has been really good working with the committee, they have been very supportive,” she said.
Kaslo and area residents are advised to call 9-1-1 for an emergency, visit the emergency room at Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson, or for non-emergencies, use the walk in clinic in Nelson at the Chahko Mika Mall.
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