Along with limited hospital beds and delayed surgeries, a major cause for the dysfunction was a shortage of doctors and nurses. Many of the problems facing hospitals are not new, but experts say the pandemic has worsened the situation, leading to a crisis so dire that patients are now starting to see emergency departments close at hospitals near them.
A BIG, “WEEKEND PART” FOR EMERGENCY TAXES
On Saturday, Perth and Smiths Falls Regional Hospital (PSFDH) announced the closure of its emergency department until Thursday, citing a COVID-19 outbreak. However, his doctors say the real reason is the ongoing staff shortage. “Yes, COVID caused the emergency department to close, but the reality is we didn’t have built-in resiliency in our nursing staff,” Dr. Alan Drummond told CTV National News on Saturday. Drummond said PSFDH’s emergency room has been reduced from 50 nurses to five, leaving the unit extremely thin. “Somebody needs to be held accountable for the fact that we lost 50 percent of our nursing staff in a matter of months, which basically caused us to fail,” he said. Drummond said the catchment area for PSFDH is about 25,000 people in a large geographic area between Smiths Falls and Peterborough, which means many patients travel long distances to get to the emergency department. Patients requiring urgent care will now have to drive 20 kilometers from Perth to Smiths Falls. “I don’t think it’s fair to the people of this community,” local resident John Hastings told CTV News on Saturday. The Ontario city of Clinton was without an emergency room for the entire Canada Day weekend, as the Clinton Public Hospital emergency room announced it would be closed from July 1st to July 5th. This marked the longest 24-hour shutdown of Clinton Public Hospital’s emergency room. Shortages of doctors and nurses are to blame, according to Deborah Wiseman, chief nursing officer of the Huron-Perth Health Alliance, who expects more service disruptions this summer. “Not just this weekend, but what you’re going to see is more to come. I will say for the next six months to several years, with our deficiencies in human health care, both in the field of nursing and in the field of doctors. We’re really struggling to maintain services,” Wiseman told CTV National News. Wiseman said they are exploring everything to try to solve the health care worker shortage and keep emergency rooms open, including using paramedics in emergency rooms. Other provinces face similar problems. Six emergency departments in Quebec will remain partially closed this summer due to staff shortages, the provincial government announced Thursday. Nova Scotia Health says people should expect long wait times in all four health zones due to high demand over the weekend. “Unfortunately, right now we’re experiencing what we call a ‘bed block,’ where we have a large number of admitted patients and 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 care and had to be taken to Portage la Prairie, about 45 minutes away, because Trehern’s emergency department was closed due to lack of staff. “I’m really angry, angry about everything. I don’t think enough thought went into it,” she said. “I’m not mad at the nurses. They also want free time.”
WHAT CAUSES PERSONNEL STOCKS?
Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, told CTV News Atlantic in May that the burnout rate for doctors and nurses is double what it was before the pandemic. “Our health care system is at a level of crisis that we’ve never really seen, and health care workers are at a level of crisis that we’ve never seen,” Smart said. A June survey published by Statistics Canada found that 95 per cent of health care workers believe the pandemic has affected their mental health and added stress to their work-life balance. During the pandemic, healthcare workers have faced extended working hours, reduced vacation time and changes in the way care is delivered. In the fourth wave of the pandemic from September to November 2021 – the period in which the survey was conducted – many health workers wanted to leave or resign due to work stress or concerns about their mental health. “How do we retain employees? Probably an increase,” Halifax ICU nurse Elinor Kelly told CTV News Atlantic in May. “Probably decent. I think this should help. Especially for intensive care nurses because of intensive 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 three times what I’m making 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. “The health system must be improved. And it can’t just be a short-term election promise … for the next few years, but a long-term one,” he told CTV National News on Saturday. With files from Deena Zaidi and CTV News Atlantic
