Nurses marched past Vancouver Island鈥檚 busiest ER Thursday as part of rally to draw attention to a health-care system in crisis.

About 200 nurses from around the Island attended a B.C. Nurses鈥� Union rally outside Nanaimo Regional General Hospital on Nov. 24.

Kelley Charters, council member with the union, said the rally was intended to send a 鈥渓oud and clear message鈥� to the government and the health authority.

鈥淭he health-care system is in a state of crisis, nurses are burning out, exhausted, and we are demanding some action now,鈥� she said.

Charters said hospitals are at 150 per cent capacity and staffing levels are sometimes as low as 50 per cent of what they should be. NRGH鈥檚 emergency room, the busiest on the Island, sees more than 230 patients per day, said Charters, with 40 patients there at a time some days. She said people sometimes wait six hours for life-saving medications, and children can wait as long as 10 hours for care.

鈥淧rimary care is not accessible, mental health services aren鈥檛 accessible and so all those patients come to the ER. It鈥檚 really the canary in the coal mine鈥︹�� she said. 鈥淲hen all the other systems fail, we see all those patients in the emergency room.鈥�

Charters has talked to nurses already tears before their shifts at the thought of what they鈥檙e going to walk into. She said it鈥檚 鈥渢raumatizing鈥� for nurses to know what patients need but seeing those patients face extended wait times.

鈥淭heir parents, their kids, their family, themselves, they live in these communities and have to access health care too and they鈥檙e really afraid it鈥檚 not going to be there for them when they need it,鈥� Charters said.

She worries about what it will mean for the community, and not just Nanaimo 鈥� she pointed to urgent care closures and short-staffing in other places on the mid Island and the north Island. She said employers have a retention problem and said more respect and dignity for nurses would be one solution 鈥� nurses should be part of more decision-making, she said, and she also thinks different approaches to scheduling, new incentives, and access to mental health supports would improve the status quo.

鈥淲e鈥檝e predicted that this crisis was coming for decades,鈥� Charters said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 definitely enough blame, so to speak, to go around.鈥�

The B.C. Nurses鈥� Union has launched a campaign website and encourage members of the public to visit for more information.

Provincial and territorial health ministers from across Canada met earlier this month to discuss a range of health-care issues including human resource challenges.

鈥淭hey reviewed the work underway across jurisdictions to capitalize on the training and recruitment of local health professionals, and to better enable the recruitment and licensure of internationally educated health professionals as one important opportunity for progress. They also discussed immediate actions and solutions underway, such as enhancing and modifying scopes of practice, including strategies to retain the existing health workforce鈥︹�� noted a press release from the B.C. Ministry of Health. 鈥淚n addition, the ministers recognized the importance of working on collective priorities to develop Canada鈥檚 capacity to train health professionals in order to meet health service demand over the coming decade.鈥�

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