Silence all around on weekend Emergency Department closure over weekend in Prince Rupert

The mid Friday evening announcement from Northern Health closing the PRRH Emergency Department for eight hours, seems to have passed without much notice from public officials and broadcasters in the Prince Rupert region. 

With few details and little discussion or comment to be found since the Northern Health announcement related to Midnight to 8AM closure.

As we outlined over the weekend, Northern Health announced the decision through their Prince Rupert Social media page to suspend services at 7 PM Friday, 

The notice then relayed through the city of Prince Rupert's Social media stream at that point.

Those who may not use Facebook however would find no mention of the situation from  either the City of Prince Rupert website or that of Northern Health. 

Also left out of the information relay on that night, was the city's mobile application program which feeds civic information to cell phone and tablet users.

For some residents that would likely mean that they would not know of the Closure until they arrived at PRRH seeking medical assistance. 

At which point they would have had to decide whether their health emergency was sufficient enough to warrant a late night, hour and half drive in the early morning hours to Terrace, the nearest hospital facility available. 

Since the announcement, there has been no comment towards the issue from any of the city's elected officials, with no observations or commentary to be found from Mayor Herb Pond or any of the city's six councillors through their social media portals.

Also missing from the communication file over the weekend was North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, who serves as the NDP Government's Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Health. 

A position with NDP government that one would imagine should seen the MAL offer some guidance  towards the closure of the emergency department in her own riding.

Northern Health as well, have not followed up with any additional information for residents of the region towards the decision of Friday night.

The Suspended services did make for some comment through the Social media feeds that did relay the news and from one, came a contribution from a local resident with much experience and knowledge on the topic.

Former Prince Rupert Councillor and Mayoralty candidate Tony Briglio, who while on Council was strongly involved with health files and  has long been an advocate for Health Care in Prince Rupert.  

He has often warned of many health care issues in the past, and on Saturday made a rare foray onto Social media with an instructive  and well received post. 

Mr. Briglio noting how the Emergency Department  closure was something that the community should view as unacceptable,  observing how more information should be provided by Northern Health and the measures they will take to resolve to have a repeat. 

 As well, he offers some guidance towards steps that elected officials should take.

So far, the Emergency Department closure is well off the radar of local media, as there is no information to be found from the Northern View, CFNR, CFTK or CBC Daybreak.

As Health Care issues have been a conversation point in recent Prince Rupert City Council, perhaps some official statement and reflection from Council on the recent Emergency situation could come from tonight's Council Session.

More notes on Health Care in the Northwest can be reviewed here.