NorthIsle Emergency Room closures are still happening. They’ve become so common that they hardly make the news anymore.
Folks may be tired of hearing about this. And you know what? We hear you.
However, until they actually stop happening, we need to talk about them (much like other health crises we’ve all gotten tired of).
So without further ado, here are the current NorthIsle health system problems you need to be aware of.
First of all, you can’t call 911 from a landline in some NorthIsle communities today. TELUS is experiencing some kind of a “hardware issue”?
Communities without landline service include Ocean Falls, Holberg, and Oweekeno.
On TELUS’ website, the outage is listed as being in Port Hardy, and started at 9:05 p.m. There is currently no estimate for when service will be restored, so hang in there.
They’ve directed people having emergencies to head to their nearest fire department or ER, which in the case of Port Hardy… wasn’t open until 7 am this morning.
That means people in smaller NorthIsle communities couldn’t call 911 or go to the ER all last night.
Port Hardy ER closures from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. have been being announced daily for the past three days. The issue? Not enough staff.
Cormorant Island Community Health Centre (CICHC) is also having staffing issues. Their emergency department will be closed from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily until October 17th.
You can find all the closures as they’re updated on the Island Health website.
