An urgent care center in Brampton is the latest urgent care center in Ontario to be forced to reduce hours due to widespread staffing challenges.
Peel Memorial Hospital will close its center at 5pm on Sunday instead of the usual closing time of 9pm.
PLEASE NOTE: The Urgent Care Center at Peel Memorial will close at 5pm today 10th July.
Emergency departments at Brampton Civic Hospital and Etobicoke General Hospital are open for urgent or urgent care.
— William Osler Health System (@OslerHealth) July 10, 2022
“Like many hospitals, we are experiencing human resource challenges and continue to explore all strategies to help our teams continue to provide exemplary care to our community,” William Osler said in response to questions about when the center would reopen.
“As always, our top priority remains the health and safety of our patients, staff, physicians, volunteers and our community. We ask for our community’s understanding at this difficult time.”
The center will reopen with normal business hours on Monday. Emergency departments at both Brampton Civic Hospital and Etobicoke General Hospital remain open.
Emergency departments and urgent care centers across the province have experienced reduced hours, consolidated staffing and forced closures this month, including at hospitals in Clinton, Kingston and Perth, Ontario.
The labor shortage is being fueled by workers leaving hospital roles or the profession altogether after more than two grueling years on the front lines of the pandemic, organizations representing nurses, doctors and community hospitals in the province say.
“The understaffing is (due to) burnout and people leaving,” Ontario Nurses Association president Catherine Hoy said in an interview last week.
“But why they burn out is because they come in for an eight or 12-hour shift and stay 16 hours.” Sometimes it’s 24 hours.”
Hoy said she has heard from nurses who have reported emergency rooms temporarily staffed by one nurse to cover 30 patients, some hospitals with dozens of emergency room vacancies and patients being cared for in hallways.
“A nurse can’t be everywhere,” she said.
Ontario’s Ministry of Health said the province is working to strengthen workforce capacity by offering one-time retention bonuses and providing funds to hire more nurses for targeted areas across the province.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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