A downtown hospital was able to secure enough last-minute workers for its emergency room this weekend after it was at risk of closing amid a staff shortage.
The University Health Network (UHN) issued a memo to medical staff this week saying it was experiencing a “severe shortage” of staff in the Emergency Department (ED) at Toronto Western Hospital.
The network said it had an “urgent need” for “volunteers” to fill nursing shifts from Friday to Sunday.
“We will not be able to safely operate the TWH ED if we cannot fill nursing shifts this weekend,” UHN staff wrote in the memo obtained by CP24.
“I am aware that it is an additional burden to once again ask for volunteers from our health professions, including doctors, to do team extension shifts. In the last wave of Covid, our doctors, residents and fellows increased several times to do so.”
UHN added that pay would be $50 an hour.
Saturday morning, UHN confirmed to CP24 that they were able to find workers for this weekend and that the emergency department is “now covered.”
“UHN, like many hospitals, was in a very tight staffing situation over the weekend due to significantly higher numbers of patients presenting to the emergency department, sicker patients, shortages of staff, staff illnesses and well-deserved and necessary vacation schedules,” said the UHN spokesperson. Gillian Howard said in a statement.
Howard added that units across the organization were able to accommodate patients admitted from emergency departments “as quickly as possible,” which helped ease pressure on emergency rooms.
UHN is made up of Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the Michener Institute of Education.
GTA hospitals have faced staff shortages in previous waves of the pandemic, with the general hospital system overwhelmed by an influx of infected patients and staff exhaustion.
As Ontario finds itself in a seventh wave of the pandemic, Howard says hospitals continue to face similar obstacles.
“This pandemic wave is affecting the staff of all healthcare organizations. Healthcare professionals continue to rise to the challenge, but it has been a very long and hard job and people are tired,” he said.
“These solutions are short-term and we focus on long-term solutions such as international recruitment, training and deployment of clinical supports, digital health solutions to name a few.”