Success By Six
Dispute resolved Compassion Farm and neighbours come to terms. PAGE 15 Car care Tips and solutions to keep motoring this spring. PAGE 26 Pedal power BMX season opens in Nanaimo this weekend. PAGE 7
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VOL. 24, NO. 145
Doctors warn of burnout at new ER ward I
PATIENTS WAITING hours for treatment at Nanaimo hospital. BY TOBY GORMAN THE NEWS BULLETIN
Flower power
Dora Glover, a founding member of the Central Vancouver Island Orchid Society, said growing orchids from seedlings, such as her phalaenopsis, takes patience but seeing the plant bloom for the first time fills her with amazement. For full story, please see page 3. RACHEL STERN/THE NEWS BULLETIN
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room doctors. The government last provided additional funding for ER staffing in 2010, but since then there has been no new money despite a sevenper cent increase in emergency patient visits year over year from 53,534 in 2011 to 57,400 in 2012 at NRGH alone. Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has stated no direct funding for more doctors is coming, though the government has negotiated a $90-million physician master agreement with the B.C. Medical Association. About $20 million of that is slated for new services, which can be used to address emergency room concerns if the association chooses. Nanaimo resident Sherry Routledge said her 85-yearold mother waited unattended in triage on March 9 for more than an hour after breaking her shoulder in three places. “It was a total of 2.5 hours from the time she fell to the time she had any pain medication,” said Routledge. “The ambulance attendant actually had to go looking for somebody because there was nobody in triage. “Once we did get some attention, the doctor was great, she did everything she could. It’s not the people, they’re doing everything they can.” ◆ See ‘EMERGENCY’ /5
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Understaffing at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital’s new emergency room is causing staff to burn out and leading to poor patient care, says at least one doctor. In a video on http://bc emergencycare.com, Dr. Kevin McMeel, looking tired at the end of an extended shift at the emergency unit at NRGH, says more doctors are needed to keep up with increasing patient numbers. “My shift started at six in the evening and was supposed to end at 2.a.m. It’s now 5 a.m. and I’m standing outside the newest emergency room in the province that we opened in October,” McMeel tells a camera. “It was built about three times the size of the last one, bigger because we were seeing way more patients ... Despite that we don’t have any extra staff.” McMeel’s testimony is one of several B.C. doctors on the site asking the government for $10 million in additional funding to pay for more emergency
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