A Dawson Creek web developer has created a tool to track emergency room closures in northern B.C., and Northern Health released its own site this morning just weeks after his launch.
Romeo Macabuhay launched iseropen.ca less than three weeks ago after growing frustrated with how scattered ER information is. This morning, he told CFNR News that updates are often only on Facebook, making it hard for residents or visitors to know whether a hospital’s emergency department is open.
“Visitors don’t know where to look. They could show up at the ER and find it closed,” Macabuhay said.
His website lists all Northern Health hospitals with emergency rooms, shows current status, and provides contact numbers, addresses, and links to official updates. Macabuhay manually updates the site at least twice a day.
With in the hour after the interview, Northern Health announced its own emergency department status webpage.
Macabuhay says his website was never intended for profit. “I just want to help people. It could be life or death,” he said. His goal is to give the community a simple, reliable resource so anyone can quickly find out if local emergency services are available.
Northern residents can visit iseropen.ca to check the latest ER status and find helpful contact information for hospitals across the Northern Health region.
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