Health care is showing the cracks it’s had for decades. Why it will take more than cash to fix it – CBC
Pouring billions into broken system like ‘pouring hot water into a leaky bathtub’: Canadian Health Coalition
Dec 21, 2022
The one-nurse emergency room that serves the remote community of Alert Bay, tucked off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, has shut down until January because it has no available staff.
That means any urgent medical cases not serious enough to warrant an air evacuation are looking at a water taxi or ferry ride of at least 40 minutes to Port McNeill, B.C.
So people living on Cormorant Island hope nobody needs help quickly anytime soon.
“It gets you very nervous. It gets you angry,” said Don Svanvik, a retired paramedic and chief councillor of ‘Namgis First Nation, which is based on the island traditionally known as Ya’Lis.
The ER has relied on contract nurses for years, Svanvik says, but at least it stayed open.
“With the system broken it’s just tough to get people to go into a haywire situation,” he said, of the struggle to attract health-care workers. “What the hell can we do about this?”
