Northern Health announced that the Emergency Room at the Chetwynd Hospital has been placed on diversion Tuesday.
It is the third time this month that the ER has been closed. The health authority did not reach out to the media to inform the public of the closure, instead it posted the closure on Facebook.
The closure was announced just before noon, it did not say when the diversion began. However, the Emergency Room is expected to re-open Tuesday at 10pm.
Northern Health is no longer informing residents whether the closure was a result of a doctor or nursing shortage. The health authority will only say that “staffing shortages’ are to blame.
Residents who are in need of life saving care are still been asked to call 911. They will be transported to the nearest hospital, which is at least an hour away.
With so many hospital diversions in Peace Region, CJDC TV News asked the VP of Clinical Operations for Northern Health, if they had addressed the issue of liability, in case someone needing life-saving care dies on the way to another hospital.
Lisa Zanatta said she can’t answer that question, but she did say they try to make sure that people get to a hospital within the hour.