The recent temporary closures of two Ontario emergency rooms and the consolidation of staff in another have renewed concern about the shortage of health workers in the province, with doctors and nurses calling on the government to address the problem.
A hospital in Clinton, Ontario, temporarily closed its emergency department from Saturday to Monday, and a hospital in Kingston, Ontario, reduced the hours of its emergency care center over the weekend to consolidate the staff in their emergency room, with both facilities citing the shortage of doctors and nurses. it moves.
In Perth, Ontario, the local site of the Perth and Smith Falls District Hospital closed its emergency room on Saturday, with a plan to keep it closed until Thursday, as staff who are already scarce face a outbreak of COVID-19.
“It is unprecedented for our community,” Dr. Alan Drummond, an emergency physician at Perth Hospital, said in an interview.
“There’s this perfect storm falling on us, which is increasing the volume of sick patients with a dwindling resources to respond.”
Perth Hospital has seen emergency room nurses drop from 15 to five in recent months, said Drummond, who also serves as co-chair of public affairs for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. .
When two nurses contracted COVID-19 recently, the Perth ER was forced to close temporarily, she said. Administrators said last week that the hospital was in a “staffing crisis.”
Ontario is struggling with the shortage of health care workers as workers leave hospital positions or the profession after more than two grueling years on the pandemic front, say organizations representing nurses, doctors and public hospitals in the pandemic. province.
“The shortage of staff is (due to) exhaustion and people are leaving,” said the president of the Ontario Nurses Association, Cathryn Hoy.
“But why they’re burning is because they come in for an eight- or 12-hour shift and they stay there for 16 hours. Sometimes they stay there for 24 hours.”
Hoy said he has heard from nurses who have reported emergency rooms with temporary staff of a single nurse to cover 30 patients, some hospitals with dozens of unoccupied ER sites and patients cared for in the hallways.
“A nurse can’t be everywhere,” she said.
The nurses’ union wants the government to expand high-speed programs that help registered professional nurses become registered nurses, as well as reduce waiting times for internationally trained nurses to obtain their licenses. dir Hoy.
The Ontario Hospital Association said staff shortages and capacity problems are creating delays in the hospital system, with a growing number of patients waiting for home care, as well as a large number of patients in acute care beds. which do not require these resources.
The labor shortage seems most pronounced in critical care and emergency departments, the association said, with rural and northern Ontario.
“The situation in these communities remains fragile,” OHA President and CEO Anthony Dale said in a written statement.
Ontario had 609 registered nurses per 100,000 residents by 2020, according to data collected by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. This was significantly lower than the Alberta and Quebec statistics.
Meanwhile, the time patients spend in emergency rooms is at a maximum of 14 years, apart from this January, the OHA said. Ambulance discharge times, how long it takes a hospital to take care of a paramedic patient, are maximum at 12 years, he said.
The Ontario Medical Association said the government should consider setting up specialized centers focused on specific surgeries or procedures to help alleviate hospital burdens.
“We know health care doesn’t work in an election cycle,” said Dr. Samantha Hill, a former president who spoke on behalf of the association. “We need to commit to more cutting-edge systems design and more cutting-edge healthcare designs.”
A spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Health said the province was working to strengthen the workforce’s capacity, even with retention bonuses and funds to hire nurses to target areas across the province.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 5, 2022.