British ColumbiaNorthern Health backtracked on sweeping announcement ending evening and weekend on-call care, calling a change made last week ‘temporary.’Northern Health backtracks on sweeping announcement ending evening and weekend on-call careCourtney Dickson · CBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2025 5:47 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoOn-call emergency health care in Tumbler Ridge has been reduced temporarily as the community, health authority and province grapple with a years-long shortage of doctors and nurses. (Google Maps)Northern Health is walking back plans to limit on-call emergency care in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., saying it’s now a temporary solution, after community backlash. The municipality, approximately 230 kilometres northeast of Prince George, is home to about 2,400 people. It’s also a UNESCO world heritage site that attracts a lot of outdoor enthusiasts, and is located near mines — meaning it also serves those workers.Up until last week, residents had access to emergency healthcare in their own community all the time, thanks to on-call services.But on Sept. 4, Northern Health announced it was limiting the availability of those on-call services, effective the following day.While the health authority said it would keep the emergency department hours of Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., it said on-call hours would be cut back and available only on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.That means that during evenings and weekends, there’s no one in the community to provide emergency care. “Unfortunately in Tumbler Ridge, we came to a situation where we thought it was just not possible to sustain the on-call hours overnight and on the weekends,” Health Minister Josie Osborne said during an interview on CBC’s Daybreak North Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, it clarified that those would be temporary measures. “It’s a slap in the face,” Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka told CBC’s Radio West Monday.He said he wasn’t looped in on the plan, despite having had recent conversations with the health authority and plans to come up with solutions to the health-care worker shortage. “I was furious on Thursday when it went out.”Properties in Tumbler Ridge B.C. As of 10 a.m. Thursday June 15, 2023, around 2,400 residents living in the community are able to return home following the lifting of an evacuation order due to a wildfire that was in place for a week. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC News)In the event someone does require emergency care, they can call 911 to be taken to the nearest emergency facility — which would be more than an hour’s drive to either Chetwynd or Dawson Creek, on good, clear roads, Krakowka said. “We’re fairly remote up in the mountains,” he added. “As winter comes and we get started getting snow, it’s a huge concern putting people out on the roads. “This is not a good situation.”But after some serious community backlash, Northern Health held an open house over the weekend for residents to learn about the changes and ask questions. Community members responded by rallying outside the community centre, where the open house was held, calling for change. “I would say there was about 200 to 250 people at this rally with all different signs asking for our healthcare back,” Krakowka said. Fast forward to Tuesday morning, and Northern Health announced that the emergency service change will be temporary — a word that was missing from the initial announcement. It is unclear how long the current service levels will last. “What we’re trying to primarily do is address and improve the retention concerns expressed by the local physicians and health-care staff,” Northern Health vice president of clinical operations Lisa Zetes-Zanatta told CBC News last week. In a Facebook post, the health authority said it would continue conversations with the community around how to solve this health-care crisis. Krakowka, a retired paramedic, said it all comes down to retaining the doctors and nurses the community has. “Maybe we need to add more positions,” he said. “Maybe we shouldn’t have the doctor or the ER nurse that is expected to possibly receive a call throughout the night also be scheduled to be working in the morning.”ABOUT THE AUTHORCourtney Dickson is an award-winning journalist based in Vancouver, B.C.With files from CBC Radio
Emergency on-call health-care cuts in northern B.C. community ‘temporary’: health authority
