‘I think we are going to be at this for a while’; Clearwater hospital has six vacancies to fill

CLEARWATER, B.C. — Back in 2022, the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital’s emergency department was plagued by staffing shortages, leading it to close its doors 60 separate times in a six-month period before the challenges eased in September of that year.

Since then, the emergency department in Clearwater had only closed twice, leading up to Tuesday’s (May 21) closure due to limited nurse availability. The emergency department has since re-opened, but the community could be headed for a rough patch in the days and weeks ahead with a handful of staffing vacancies existing.

“I don’t think this is a one-off. I think we are going to be at this for a while,” said Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell. “I’m hoping that it’s not too frequent but we have seen a hole in the schedule that has been coming for quite a while. We do have vacancies here in Clearwater for full-time positions — I believe it is above six positions, which is actually quite significant — for [registered nurses, licensed practical nurses], people with emergency room qualifications. We have been recruiting on that for quite a while now.”

Back in 2022, the community rallied together to tackle the prevailing issues, including finding homes for perspective doctors and nurses. With crews now finished work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, the housing market is no longer a massive hurdle in recruitment.

After dealing with the struggles of two years ago, there is a clear path forward for Clearwater.

“All sorts of social factors are not in play anymore. We are essentially out of the worst of COVID, so I’m actually fairly hopeful with this. I’m hoping this is just a one-off, two-off, maybe a month where we have some hard times here with this,” said Blackwell. “I think people at the hospital like Heidi (Schilling, hospital manager), who have kept it together with tenacity and medical tape will continue to work at this and do their absolute best to ensure it doesn’t happen very often, if at all.”