B.C.’s mental health and addictions critic says the psychiatric unit at Vernon’s hospital is on diversion “for the foreseeable future.”
But while Conservative Skeena MLA Claire Rattée alleged this diversion is leaving psychiatric patients to languish in hallways and emergency departments, Interior Health says this is not the case.
Speaking in the legislature Monday, April 20, Rattée raised the case of Ezra Cool, a 22-year-old man who “slipped through the cracks” at Vernon Jubilee Hospital after “being left waiting without proper supervision or support.”
Cool was fatally struck by a semi-truck on Highway 6 after escaping wraparound supervision at the hospital. He’d spent six days in the emergency department while experiencing psychosis.
“He voluntarily admitted himself and was left for days in a hallway bed, despite being certified under the Mental Health Act. And since then, I have had numerous families reach out to me about loved ones that they have lost in that same psychiatric unit,” Rattée said.
Rattée then said she’s heard that the same unit Cool should have been transferred to is now on diversion, “meaning that patients in crisis are being sent to the emergency department and left in hallways while staff have been instructed to briefly assess and move on.”
Chris Simms, executive director of clinical operations for Interior Health, refuted this claim in a phone call with The Morning Star, though he admitted that psychiatrist staffing challenges have led to some diversions of patients from Salmon Arm and Revelstoke away from Vernon Jubilee.
“Psychiatric services continue to be available at Vernon Jubilee Hospital for individuals in distress or needing care,” Simms said Wednesday morning. “What’s happening here is, due to a current shortage of psychiatrists, adult mental health and substance use patients from Salmon Arm and Revelstoke that require hospital care that would normally be transported from their communities to Vernon Jubilee Hospital are just being temporarily referred to either Kelowna or Kamloops for care.”
Simms said this diversion of Revelstoke and Salmon Arm patients is being done in order to maintain safety for patients and manage the workload of Vernon’s psychiatry team.
He added this temporary referral pattern change will not impact youth patients (ages 12 to 18) or people who present directly to the Vernon hospital.
The issue stems from last fall, when four psychiatrists resigned at the hospital in a short period of time. Interior Health north executive medical director Dr. Peter Bosma told The Morning Star at the time that the resignations were due to separate and unrelated personal reasons and that all four would be continuing to work in the community, having only resigned from inpatient care in the hospital.
Bosma had then said recruiting new psychiatrists – and specialized health care professionals in general — was a challenge. However, Simms said Wednesday that recruitment progress is now being made.
He said there are seven psychiatry candidates who are interested in positions in Vernon, and one of them will be starting at the hospital in June.
While the recruitment process is moving forward, Interior Health is managing workloads of the hospital’s existing five psychiatrists with its diversion of Salmon Arm and Revelstoke patients, Simms said.
Vernon Jubilee had nine psychiatrists before the four resigned, and Simms said Interior Health would like to get the hospital’s complement of psychiatrists “back to that number (or) slightly above it.”
Budget not an obstacle for hiring psychiatrists
Nurses who spoke to The Morning Star in the wake of Cool’s death alleged that budgetary restictions had led to a critical shortage of nurses in the emergency department.
Simms said he couldn’t speak to individual cases, such as Cool’s, but stated that when it comes to hiring more psychiatrists and nurses to staff the psychiatry unit, funding is available.
“We will hire the staff that’s required to provide that service,” he said. “I’m not worried about that at all.”
Simms added a full-time general practitioner who supports the psychiatric unit has already been hired.
In response to a question from Rattée in the legislature on Monday about whether the current state of the healthcare system is acceptable, Health Minister Josie Osborne highlighted the $131 million investment into the system that’s in this year’s budget.
Osborne said the province is adding more psychiatric beds and is pursuing expansions “across the entire continuum of mental health and substance use care so that people receive the prevention and early intervention that is needed before problems become worse.”
Rattée responded in a press release issued Tuesday, questioning Osborne’s decision to point to investments instead of on-the-ground results.
“In order for universal healthcare to work, people actually have to be able to access healthcare,” said Rattée. “Increasing the healthcare budget does very little for British Columbians if there are no meaningful results attached to it and things just continue to get worse.”