Vancouver Island doctor calls for resignation of Island Health leader amid health-care 'crisis'
An emergency room doctor on Vancouver Island is calling on the leadership of the health authority to resign, saying harassment by Island Health officials is prompting doctors to abandon the region amid a critical shortage of health-care workers.
Dr. Alex Nataros will be the only emergency doctor working in Port Hardy, B.C., by the end of June, once the resignations of two of his colleagues are finalized.
"My own experience for the past two weeks is continued harassment by the health authority leadership," Nataros told Victoria's CFAX 1070 on Friday.
"That is leading to us hemorrhaging doctors from the North Island and leading to the crisis that we're facing now and into the future," he added. "As a result of this I'm calling for the resignation of the chief medical officer of Island Health, Dr. Ben Williams."
The emergency room doctor said one of his colleagues who plans to resign in the coming months asked Nataros to share his reasons for leaving his post.
Specifically, the doctor complained of "poor treatment at the hands of the health authority and health authority leadership," according to Nataros, as well as "lost income because of health authority negligence and threat to patient care."
Williams responded to the doctor's comments in an emailed statement to CTV News, saying he takes the allegations with "great concern," but is unable to comment directly on the matter due to his responsibility to the health authority.
'THE ADMINISTRATION IS PATHETIC'
Dr. Prean Armogam, a family clinician in the northern Vancouver Island town of Port McNeill, B.C., says the complaints raised by Nataros are shared by doctors across the region.
Armogam, who has been practising medicine in Port McNeill for 17 years, told CTV News on Friday that North Island doctors are united in their desire for a change in leadership at Island Health.
"The problem with Ben Williams and the executive medical leadership is that they're not present," Armogam said.
"Decisions continue to be made without consulting with people on the ground, people who are frontline, like Alex and myself and the doctors who have been here all these years."
Last week the B.C. Health Ministry said "significant efforts" were underway to improve access to health care on the North Island, while announcing that two emergency rooms in Port Hardy and Alert Bay would be closed overnight for the foreseeable future.
Defending the announcement on Friday, Williams said the health authority "remains committed to the initiatives announced last week, and to work in collaboration with our many partners – including physicians – to stabilize and improve the reliability of health care services in the region."
Doctors of BC, a voluntary association of 14,000 physicians, residents and medical students in B.C., released its annual membership survey Wednesday, showing Vancouver Island health-care workers reported the lowest level of satisfaction with their health authority in the province.
Forty per cent of respondents in the Island Health region said they were satisfied with practising medicine in the region in 2022, compared to a provincial average satisfaction rate of 50 per cent.
Chief among the complaints from Island Health practitioners were a lack of transparency and clear communication from Island Health decision-makers.
"We are not likely to be successful if we have the current leadership," Armogam said. "The administration is pathetic. The local administration and senior leadership has been so broken."
"We cannot function with the current leadership model," he added. "Changes need to happen for us to be set up for success otherwise it's hopeless."
According to the survey, more than half of Island Health respondents reported experiencing a "psychological safety incident" over the past 12 months, while 35 per cent reported at least one threat to their physical safety.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING Appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.