The Canadian Press Published Friday, July 29, 2022 5:19 PM EDT Last Updated Friday, July 29, 2022 5:19 PM EDT
Several Ontario hospitals reduced service in certain areas over the long weekend due to staff shortages, as an Ontario nurses’ union called on the province to address what it called a situation alarming
Emergency departments were to be closed at Wingham and District Hospital from Saturday evening until early Sunday and at Listowel Memorial Hospital for much of the day on Sunday. In Huron County, Seaforth Community Hospital said it would temporarily close its emergency room overnight because it was understaffed.
In Bowmanville, Ontario, the local hospital was temporarily closing its critical care unit due to a staffing crisis. Lakeridge Health, which operates the site and four other hospitals in Durham Region, said staff at its Bowmanville facility would be consolidated into critical care sites at its Ajax Pickering and Oshawa hospitals.
In Orangeville, Ont., Headwaters Health Care Center said it was rerouting obstetric services from Thursday to Monday due to a lack of pediatrician coverage. He said there were protocols in place to support patients if they arrived at the hospital in labour.
The Ontario Nurses Association said it had heard from members about the staffing shortage affecting more than a dozen hospitals in various ways ahead of the long weekend.
“It’s closings, reducing beds, they’re redirecting patients, things like that,” the association’s president, Cathryn Hoy, said in an interview Friday.
Hoy said his union was “alarmed” by the impact the nursing shortage is having on patient care in Ontario and called on the government to meet with health unions to discuss solutions.
“We cannot wait any longer to resolve this crisis that is hurting Ontarians and their access to health care,” Hoy said.
Ontario hospitals have faced staffing strain in recent weeks, with some having to temporarily close emergency rooms while others have had to rely on redeployed staff and students to cover shifts.
As examples of solutions to the crisis, Hoy suggested ensuring internationally trained nurses are licensed faster to work in the province and speeding up a program to help registered practical nurses become registered nurses.
Nurses are also seeking more guaranteed access to personal protective equipment, he added, as exhausted workers face the continued risk of COVID-19 during a seventh wave of infections with few public health measures in place to mitigate the spread.
There also needs to be incentives to bring back retired nurses who will be needed to train new graduates and nurses trained outside of Ontario, Hoy said. He suggested repealing legislation limiting wage increases to 1% a year to attract workers to the countryside.
The government said hospitals are expected to have plans in place to mitigate the risk to patient care when departments are closed.
These plans must include communication with the public about reductions and alternative care options, staff assigned to greet patients who are unaware of an emergency department closing, a process for patient coverage hospitalized and a staffed ambulance on standby in the closed emergency. department if possible.
A spokesman for Health Minister Sylvia Jones declined an interview request from The Canadian Press on Friday, but provided a written statement from Jones in which she said the province is working with “all partners” , including hospitals and unions, to address “the challenge of maintaining the necessary workforce.” levels”.
He pointed to previous government efforts to bolster staffing levels, including hiring internationally trained nurses and expanding a summer program for doctors that matches doctors with hospitals that need help.
“We have an ambitious plan for the largest healthcare recruitment and training initiative in the history of the province, which is already starting to see results,” Jones said.
Jones has rarely spoken to the media since being sworn in as health minister last month. Critics have called for him to take a more public leadership role in discussing the crisis in the province’s hospitals and the government’s planned response.
On Friday, the opposition New Democrats repeated those calls amid news of the expected closings of the Ontario Nurses Association.
“Where is Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones?” health critic France Gélinas said in a written statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 29, 2022.