Hospitals overwhelmed by the onslaught of the pandemic still face a number of challenges, leading to unprecedented wait times in emergency rooms across the country.
Along with limited hospital beds and a backlog of surgeries, one of the main causes of dysfunction has been a shortage of doctors and nurses.
Many of the problems facing hospitals aren’t new, but experts say the pandemic has exacerbated the situation, leading to a crisis so severe that patients are now starting to see emergency department closures at nearby hospitals. .
A LONG ‘LONG WEEKEND’ FOR ER ROOMS
On Saturday, Perth and Smith Falls District Hospital (PSFDH) announced a shutdown of your emergency department through Thursday, citing an outbreak of COVID-19. However, his doctors say the real reason is the continuing shortage of staff.
“Yes, COVID caused the emergency department to close, but the reality is that we didn’t have the built-in resilience of our nursing staff,” Dr. Alan Drummond told CTV National News on Saturday.
Drummond said PSFDH’s emergency room has been cut from 50 nurses to five, leaving the unit exceptionally short.
“Someone needs to be held accountable for the fact that we lost 50 percent of our nursing staff in several months, which basically set us up for failure,” he said.
Drummond said PSFDH’s catchment area is about 25,000 people in a large geographic area between Smiths Falls and Peterborough, meaning many patients travel long distances to get to the emergency department.
Patients in need of urgent care will now have to drive 20 kilometers from Perth to Smiths Falls.
“I don’t think it’s fair to the people in this community,” local resident John Hastings told CTV News on Saturday.
The city of Clinton in Ontario was without an ER for the entire Canada Day long weekendas the Clinton Public Hospital emergency room announced a closure from July 1-5.
This marked the longest 24-hour closure of the Clinton Public Hospital emergency room.
A shortage of doctors and nurses is to blame, according to Deborah Wiseman, executive director of nursing for Huron-Perth Health Alliance, who anticipates more interruptions in services this summer.
“Not just this weekend, but what you will see is more to come. I’m going to say for the next six months to several years, with our shortage of human health care, both in the nursing and physician areas. We’re really fighting to keep services going,” Wiseman told CTV National News.
Wiseman said they are looking into everything to try to solve the health care worker shortage and keep emergency rooms open, including the use of paramedics in emergency rooms.
Other provinces are experiencing similar problems. Six emergency departments in Quebec will be partially closed this summer due to staff shortages, the provincial government announced Thursday.
Nova Scotia Health says people should expect long wait times in the four health zones due to high demand during the long weekend.
“Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing what we call ‘bed blockage,’ where we have a large number of patients admitted and there is nowhere to send them,” Dr. Margaret Fraser, a physician at Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney, NS, told CTV. National News on Saturday.
Bonnie Nunn, a resident of Trehern, Manitoba, told CTV National News on Saturday that her daughter recently needed emergency treatment and had to be taken to Portage la Prairie, about 45 minutes away, because the Trehern emergency department was Closed due to lack of staff.
“I’m really mad, mad about everything. I don’t think I’ve thought about this enough,” she said.
“I am not mad at the nurses. They also need time off.”
WHAT IS CAUSING THE STAFF SHORTAGE?
Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, told CTV News Atlantic in May that the rate of doctors and nurses burnout is double what it was before the pandemic.
“Our healthcare system is in a level of crisis that we have never seen, and healthcare workers are in a state of crisis that we have never seen,” Smart said.
A June survey released by Statistics Canada showed that 95 per cent of healthcare workers feel the pandemic has affected their mental health and added stress to their work-life balance.
During the pandemic, healthcare workers have faced longer work hours, fewer vacations, and changes in the method of care.
In the fourth wave of the pandemic between September and November 2021, the period in which the survey was conducted, many healthcare workers were looking to leave or resign due to job stress or concerns about their mental health.
“How do we retain workers? Probably an increase,” Elinor Kelly, a Halifax ICU nurse, told CTV News Atlantic in May.
“Probably a decent one. I think that’s going to have to help. Especially for critical care nurses because in critical care, we have a lot of people that we train and hire, but after a year or so they can go to work privately for triple the amount of money that I make after 27 years”.
Dr. Paul Saba, a family physician and president of the Board of Physicians at Hôpital de Lachine in Montreal, said he wants the government to make substantial changes.
“We have to improve the health system. And it can’t be just a short-term election promise…for the next few years, but a long-term one,” he told CTV National News on Saturday.
Archived by Deena Zaidi and CTV News Atlantic