Despite staffing incentives, Masset, B.C., ER closures continue

Despite several incentives by the Ministry of Health to attract health-care workers into rural communities in B.C., the Northern Haida Gwaii Hospital in Masset, B.C., continues to shut its doors, with 17 ER closures this past July alone.

Nadja Smith Hanson has lived in Masset for the past three years. In an email, Hanson told CBC she needed to access the ER pharmacy this past May —  the only pharmacy in Masset — only to find the hospital had been closed for the previous 18 hours.

"You can't get access to a simple EpiPen or antihistamine," she said. "This is life-threatening, and the alternative they provide is to ... call 911, but the ambulance takes up to an hour to arrive."

ER closures have become a chronic occurrence in the northern B.C. community, with residents holding rallies over the last year in order to bring attention to the issue and call on the province to intervene with more nurse and doctor supports.

Meanwhile, the hospital in Haida Gwaii's Daajing Giids has stayed open more consistently, with a union executive pointing to better housing near the southern Haida Gwaii hospital relative to that available in Masset.

"It does set in a little bit of panic, almost," says Village of Masset Mayor Sheri Disney of the ER closures in an interview with Daybreak North last week.

Disney says if the ER on the northern end of the island is closed, Masset emergency responders may decide to take their patient south to the Haida Gwaii Hospital in Daajing Giids, a drive that is over 100 kilometres along Highway 16.

"It snaps them into making a decision of, 'Do I occupy us as a service and this vehicle for five to six hours to run this patient… or do we decide that this person is probably stable enough we can get them to a point where they can hold overnight?'," Disney says.

According to Statistics Canada 4,245 people lived in Haida Gwaii as of the 2021 census, and nearly 45 per cent of the archipelago's population is Indigenous.

The Northern Haida Gwaii Hospital serves four communities in the surrounding area – Masset, the Village of Old Massett, Port Clements and Tow Hill.

The closest hospital, outside the island, is located in Prince Rupert, an eight-hour ferry ride away from Haida Gwaii.

"We have more physicians who own properties in Masset than would be required [for] full-time staff," says Disney.

"But what we're hearing is that it's actually a nursing shortage that is preventing our emergency room from being opened."

Hanson says she also wants to know what keeps shutting the ER doors. 

"There have been no closures to the south, Daajing Giids hospital. Why is the Daajing Giids hospital stable and Masset is not? What is the difference between the two? I'd like to know." 

Minister touts hiring incentives

Teri Forster, the northwest regional council member for the B.C. Nurses' Union, says the south Haida Gwaii hospital isn't facing the same staffing issues partly because of investment in newer housing in Daajing Giids by the Northern Health Authority.

"Masset has not been provided that same level of new housing for new people moving to the community as well for people that are temporarily coming to provide help," says Forster.

"If you don't have housing and you don't have access to the supports in the workplace from the health authority, you might not want to stay," she added.

CBC reached out to Northern Health, asking how much they had invested in housing for health-care workers in the south Haida Gwaii hospital in Daajing Giids, and when it was built. The health-care authority did not respond in time for publication. 

Earlier this year the provincial government launched several incentives for nurses to work in certain remote and rural communities, including signing bonuses of up to $30,000, in exchange for a two-year signing commitment. 

Health Minister Adrian Dix told CBC the province has recently signed a group contract for more doctors, and will be adding more permanent staff in the fall.