In Prince Rupert, New Parenthood in September started with a road trip to Terrace

Some concerning news on health care in Prince Rupert and other parts of the Northwest, that through a couple of reports from  the region which noted that if there was a baby to be born in the first two weeks of September, the destination for the big event was Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace.

The first came from the Provincial news service The Tyee, with Health reporter Michelle Gamage relaying details yesterday towards a situation in Smithers that left patients in that community up in the air as to where they would be delivering their child.

A follow up item from the Northern View's Seth Forward today suggests that those staffing issues at multiple hospitals from Smithers to Kitimat and Prince Rupert had led to Northern Health to seemingly centralize maternity operations to the Terrace hospital 

Both reports note that Northern Health had stated that staffing challenges had started with the Labour Day weekend, as well as to relay that patients would still be able to deliver in a hospital ER or offered safe transport to another facility.

While the Tyee report suggests that the situation may have eased by September 11th, there's no clear indication yet if maternity services are once again in full operation at any of the facilities beyond Terrace's Mills Memorial Hospital.

The two news reports make for the only actual official notice of the policy that had been put in place by the Health Authority towards the issue.

Northern Health for its part has nothing to share officially through any of their information options whether it's their website or their social media stream.

And information sharing seems to be an area of communication that Northern Health seems to struggle with.

Whether it's a case of manslaughter at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital,  ongoing staffing issues at regional hospitals, or as in today's notes ... the need for parent's to hit the road to give birth.  

Providing for important health related themes in a timely and effective manner with the public does not seem to be Northern Health's focus at times.

Often it seems that items of concern for the community usually only come to light following a news tip to a newsroom and not through any official statements from health authorities.

And that's not really how it should be for residents of the region who expect quality health care when they arrive at the hospital's sliding doors.

Considering how focused on health care that Prince Rupert City Council has been through the years, it's unusual for a situation such as this to slip by without some kind of alarm being raised, or at least to make it a conversation piece.

Such issues in the past have seen Council Members use the civic forum to try to shine the light on Northern Health's challenges and reflect community concern.

Yet, at their most recent Council session of Monday, notable for its brevity, none of the Councillors shared any concerns over the current status of health care at the hospital over the first few weeks of the month. 

The maternity care issue is however one that they should add to their growing list of discussion topics.

Likewise, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, who is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Health has not had anything to share to the topic through her social media stream or official announcement channels.

We're pretty sure that Opposition Member Rice would have been quick to take the government to task towards another issue of many on rural health care; so it will be interesting to see how as a member of the government the MLA and Parliamentary Secretary responds to the issue.

The North Coast Review has put in a request for a comment, so should one come forward, we'll relay the details towards the issue of note.

The challenges for health care in the Northwest have been pretty clear for a few years now and solutions seem few and far between for staffing issues. 

However, while  it may be mostly an inconvenience in the summer time for parents-to-be to travel to a central location ...

A few months along the calendar puts us into the heart of the winter driving season and a trip to Terrace to have your baby, is not something that should require the added concern over quickly changing and dangerous road conditions that often come with our Northwest winters.

Hopefully Northern Health has a plan to address similar situations in the future and more importantly, with some luck, maybe they'll share that information with the public, before a reporter has to make a call.

More notes on health care in the Northwest is available. here.