Results of a meeting between the District of Houston council and Northern Health nearly a year ago is proving to be a benefit to local residents.
Instead of every patient being taken to Bulkley Valley District Hospital in Smithers, some patients, depending on their condition and time of day, are being taken instead to the Houston Health Centre.
Council members advocated for the change, saying having fewer people taken to Smithers will reduce the strain on that community’s hospital, avoid the problem of how to get people back home after being discharged and avoid occupying an ambulance for the two-hour round trip.
They noted that nurse practitioners on duty at the health centre during business hours could assist patients depending upon their individual circumstances.
In a follow up statement, the provincial ambulance service confirmed that a change in how people were assessed and then treated was put into place last year.
“Redirecting patients who can be safely treated at the Houston Health Centre urgent care ensures that hospital emergency departments are available for the patients with conditions that need to go to hospital, and also reduces the distances of transporting patients out of the community,” the service stated.
It added that decisions of who can be taken to the health centre for less-urgent reasons are made by local paramedics in contact with other paramedics and specialists at its dispatch centre and with facilities such as the health centre.
Among the less-urgent circumstances provided by the service as suitable for treatment at the Houston Health Centre are non-traumatic back pain, minor allergies, minor burns and minor wounds.
Since January of this year, the service said 25 people under the new protocol were taken to the Houston Health Centre.
And the service indicated it will expand the referral service later this year to include other medical conditions.
Ambulance officials provided an example: “A 65-year-old patient whose vital signs are otherwise stable calls 911 after a fall and has twisted their ankle but otherwise would be able to bear weight could potentially be a patient who could be assessed at Houston Health Centre urgent care.”
A health care expert in the dispatch centre would then speak with someone at the health centre about bringing the person there.
In asking for the change in how people were treated, council said having discharged patients arrange their own transport home from the Smithers hospital “creates unnecessary barriers for people and is a disincentive for patients to go to hospital, who instead opt to stay home instead of receiving care because they do not have transportation home.”
“This is an especially difficult barrier for seniors and other vulnerable community members who do not have family or personal transportation,” council added in a briefing note made available to Northern Health last year.
Council will be meeting with Northern Health officials in September at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention to continue to press for increased health care services in the community.
And if nothing can be done to avoid having all patients taken to Smithers, council then says Northern Health should arrange for transport home once out of the hospital.
Having discharged patients arrange their own transport “creates unnecessary barriers for people and is a disincentive for patients to go to hospital, who instead opt to stay home instead of receiving care because they do not have transportation home,” council added in its briefing note.
“This is an especially difficult barrier for seniors and other vulnerable community members who do not have family or personal transportation.”