The emergency department at a hospital in Mount Forest, Ont., will be closed overnight Saturday-Sunday due to “significant gaps in nursing coverage,” North Wellington Health Care says.
In addition, the outbreak of COVID-19 at Louise Marshall Hospital is putting additional strain on the system, says hospital President and CEO Angela Stanley.
“Recruiting throughout the summer at our sites has been uncertain,” Stanley told CBC News.
“Our staff, all clinical providers, direct and indirect care providers, are extremely fatigued. They have been making sacrifices for over two years now, giving up vacations, sacrificing time with family and friends. And they work a significant amount of overtime dealing with patients who come in much sicker.”
Stanley said the decision wasn’t taken lightly, but after realizing there were significant staff gaps, the hospital realized it would have to reduce hours.
The hospital’s emergency department will close at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday and reopen at 7 a.m. on Sunday. It will close again on Sunday at 5pm and reopen at 7am on Monday.
Nearby emergency departments are in Palmerston, a 20-minute drive, Durham, which is 23 minutes, or Listowel, a 32-minute drive from Mount Forest.
The latest hospital to cut hours
Mount Forest is the latest in a series of emergency department closings or downsizing in Ontario. It comes after Ontario Health released new numbers that showed record high wait times and patient volumes in the province’s emergency departments in May.
Clinton Community Hospital’s emergency department was temporarily closed over the Canada Day long weekend due to a shortage of nurses and doctors. There are limited hours this week. It was open on Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m
Seaforth Community Hospital has also reduced emergency department opening hours this week. It is open between 7am and 5pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance website says.
Mount Forest Hospital’s emergency department is just the latest in southern Ontario to announce reduced hours due to staff shortages. (Mike Symington/CBC)
In addition, hospitals in Wingham, Listowel and Chesley reduced their opening hours over the past weekend.
“All efforts to locate staff for the emergency department have been unsuccessful,” South Bruce Gray Health Center posted on its website for the Chesley hospital.
Mary Cardinal, vice president, people and chief quality officer at Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, said in a statement on the website that she had heard concerns about reduced services.
“These are not isolated incidents and hospitals across the province are experiencing the same challenges,” Cardinal said.
Jimmy Threew, president and CEO of Alexandra Marie Hospital and Goderich General Hospital and the South Huron Hospital Association, said one of the problems is that over the past four years, many health care workers have retired and each a fifth of hospital staff in the province is over 50 years old. Those who have left the profession cite the pandemic and burnout as the main reasons.
“It will be a challenging summer due to staffing pressures,” Trieu said in the news release.
Blaming vaccine forces ‘distraction’ from real problems: CEO
Stanley agreed that this is not an isolated situation and that staffing has been an issue even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This has been around for several years. COVID has just exacerbated the problems we are facing,” she said.
Stanley noted that she’s heard people comment that hospitals should rehire health care workers who chose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but says that’s not the problem.
“We only had one nurse who chose to leave as a result of the mandatory vaccine. So it’s really not a problem,” Stanley said.
“I think it’s distracting from the issues we’re facing. We’re wasting time talking about it when we should actually be solving problems and talking about what we know is causing these vacancies and the turnover and leaving of health care staff.”
Stanley asked the community for continued support and patience in the coming weeks.
“We are experiencing more and more concerns and behaviors from patients that we see that add to the stress of our clinicians trying to care for them,” she added.
“The biggest thing I can ask for, especially this weekend right now, is patience and continued support.”
Add Comment