With increasing demand forcing emergency rooms to close across the country, top doctors say more immediate help is needed before things get worse.
Dr. Raghu Venugopal, a Toronto emergency physician, says he believes the health care system is not collapsing, but “has already collapsed.”
“The nurses and doctors in Ontario and Canada who work in the emergency departments are very dismayed, honestly, by the human situation that patients and families have to face on a daily basis,” she said.
Read more: Ontario hospitals warn of closer ER closures over the summer
“Waiting times are very long. Nurses are overwhelmed by the amount of orders they are asked to carry out … There are no metrics or anything your eyes can’t see as a patient or familiar to the ER that the system has not collapsed, as we know it. “
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Emergency rooms in hospitals across the country, from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland and Labrador, have had to temporarily close their doors this summer.
In Alberta, there have been 19 outages to emergency and outpatient facilities since early June.
Some of the emergency closures have occurred in smaller rural hospitals, such as Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater, BC, which has experienced more than 20 closures this year, says Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell.
On Saturday, the hospital’s emergency room closed again, but that wasn’t announced until the next day, Blackwell said Monday at Global News Morning in BC.
Read more: Rural Saskatchewan ER closures have Assiniboia, Sask. “concerned” residents
“Clearly it’s a big concern for citizens who don’t know the ER is closed,” he said.
“More worrying is that I’m actually hearing that the ambulance crews weren’t aware and they showed up with a patient on the night shift and they had to … deviate to Kamloops. So that kind of. Communication disruption is obviously very, very worrying. “
But the problems are not just in rural areas.
On Sunday, Montreal Children’s Hospital was temporarily forced to reject patients due to overcrowding. In BC, where four Homeland Hospitals announced temporary deviations over the weekend, the official advice for those in need of emergency care was to call 911 and move on to the next nearest ER.
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2:24 Staff shortage will lead to emergency closures at 6 Quebec hospitals this summer Staff shortages will lead to emergency closures at 6 Quebec hospitals this summer – June 22, 2022
For some, this could mean traveling long distances to get attention.
In New Brunswick this weekend, Morgan Lanigan’s wife, Kelly, suffered so much pain on Sunday evening that they decided they had to go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital, which for them was St. John’s Hospital Joseph of Saint John. But the emergency department was at full capacity, as was Saint John Regional Hospital.
After an hour on the road, the couple arrived at a full waiting room at Dr. Regional Hospital. Everett Chalmers, where they waited three hours to be evaluated.
Read more: “She could not bear the pain”: NB couple is rejected in various emergencies
“When a doctor finally came out and was taking everyone’s vital data into the waiting room, which was very nice to see, but when he took my wife’s vital data he said, I think, just there has two nurses on duty and the The triage nurse who was on a 12-hour shift just came down to Saint John to help them in their emergency, ”Lanigan said.
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What is causing the closure of ER?
Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), says the problems driving these closures are complex, but one of the biggest problems right now is the shortage of health care workers across Canada, especially in nursing.
“That’s the main reason we’re seeing behind the closures is that there’s no one to really work in the emergency department,” he said.
Read more: ER closures expected as doctors concerned about rural and northern Manitoba health care
Summers are usually slower periods for hospitals, but emergency rooms are seeing higher volumes of patients that are more typical of winter, which is unusual, Smart said. Many of these are patients who have been postponing the visit to the doctor during the pandemic and are now sicker or need more care.
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But what is most unusual are ER closures across the country, he said.
Read more: “We are absolutely destroyed”: health workers face exhaustion, although COVID levels fall
“I think the impact of what we’re seeing right now is really unprecedented and on a level that’s unique and hasn’t happened in recent years.”
Dr. Melanie Bechard, a doctor in the CHEO emergency room in Ontario, says she has only been running an independent practice for just over a year and that what she has experienced is nothing like her training.
“The volumes of patients we’re seeing are record-breaking, both for me and for the hospital, and it was a very rude introduction to the practice of medicine, in a way,” he said.
Dr. Melanie Bechard, a CHEO emergency physician, says she is seeing record volumes of patients. Photo sent.
“I’ve been seeing a lot more patients than I ever thought I would in a turn.”
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Bechard says he has had to “compartmentalize” his feelings of guilt for the long waits experienced by so many patients and families, while he can only safely treat one patient at a time.
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“I believe that as emergency providers, we have always seen our work and our career as one that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a day, whatever it is, at any time of the day. However, we are seeing that we are no longer able to fulfill that promise, ”he said.
“The idea of closing rural emergency departments when there are other very limited options for out-of-hours care is scary, and I really think it should absolutely capture the attention of policymakers and the public. we need to give these emergency departments the resources they need to stay open and provide high quality care. ”
Read more: The shortage of nurses causes the closure of emergency beds in Alberta: doctor, union
Toronto emergency physician Dr. Kashif Pirzada says a seventh wave of COVID-19 is feeding many increases in patients in his emergency room.
He believes that governments and citizens have gone too far in removing public health measures, such as masking and physical distancing, which is why more people are getting sick and need emergency care.
“We’re getting waves (from COVID-19) every two or three months and the system just wasn’t designed for the stress of it … so we’re seeing the strains now,” he said.
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“On the other hand, you also have the staff completely exhausted to deal with this for the last two and a half years. So a lot of people have left emergency medicine, nurses and doctors, and that’s contributing to the problem now. ”
2:08 Staff shortage forces temporary closure of another BC hospital ER Staff shortage forces temporary closure of another BC hospital ER – May 29, 2022
A ‘general rehearsal’ for fall and winter
And Pirzada believes it could get worse, if nothing more is done to prevent people from contracting COVID-19.
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“I consider this wave as a general rehearsal of what will happen in the fall or winter when we have another wave. But this time, we won’t be so much outdoors, schools will be back in session, ”he said.
“So no matter what stress we’re facing right now, we have to deal with it in some way. There needs to be leadership, otherwise we’re going to face a lot worse in the fall and winter.”
Doctors want policymakers to do more to immediately increase resources not only in emergency departments, but in other areas of health care, such as long-term care and primary care, so that people who do not need to be in an emergency room can get a doctor. help in a more suitable place, said Smart.
But it must also be acknowledged that the health care system is in crisis, he said.
2:13 The Minister of Health under fire after the family of a Quebec man said the emergency closure caused his death.
“I think the first thing that needs to happen now is just for governments to treat this as an emergency,” Smart said.
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“There are a number of pressure points that probably have some tangible solutions, but it’s …