Mission Memorial Hospital’s emergency ward will either be closed nights, or other cuts resulting in $390,000 in savings will have to be found.

Staff at the hospital were informed of the difficult alternatives at a meeting last Friday afternoon.

Hospital executive director Vivian Giglio said Mission Memorial must come up with its share of savings, as the Fraser Health Authority wrestles with a budget shortfall of $160 million. The status quo is not an option for any hospital in the region.

“We are looking for savings across our continuum,” Giglio said, and confirmed that the hospital is looking at cutting ER hours from 24 back to 15 per day.

Staff are incredulous, according to the nurses’ union.

“For a city the size of Mission – and it’s growing – we need a 24-hour emergency,” said Linda Pipe, the regional representative for the BC Nurses’ Union and a Mission nurse. She calls the proposed cut “a disservice to the people of Mission.”

Pipe pointed out that doctors in the ER cover all the patients in the hospital, should they need a physician’s attention overnight. With the ER closed for nine hours, if a patient takes a turn for the worse, the hospital will have to rely on doctors on-call to respond. She said the majority don’t live in Mission.

She wants to know what will happen to patients who come to Mission ER, and have not yet been admitted at closing, if there is no space for them in the 20-bed hospital?

“Where do those people go? They will be in hallways, or they have to ship them out to another facility, and they’ll have to wait in emerg there.”

Pipe said trying to cut in other areas of the hospital will have impacts just as egregious as closing the ER at night.

“We’re already cut to the bone.”

Giglio confirmed that there is no fat left to trim in the health care system, and cuts will impact services.

However, she said most of the ER calls in Mission come during the day, and points out that St. Joseph’s hospital in Vancouver is an example of a hospital that closes its ER evenings, which still fulfills its role as a community hospital.

“There are successful models out there.”