A city center hospital managed to secure enough workers at the last minute for its emergency department this weekend after being at risk of closing due to staff shortages.
University Health Network (UHN) issued a memo to nursing staff this week saying it is experiencing a “severe shortage” of staff in the emergency department (ED) of Toronto Western Hospital.
The network said there was an “urgent need” for “volunteers” to fill nursing shifts from Friday to Sunday.
“We will not be able to operate the TWH ED safely if we are unable to fill nursing shifts this weekend,” UHN staff wrote in the memo obtained by CP24.
“I am aware that it is an added burden to ask again for volunteers from our health professions, including doctors, to take shifts to expand the team. In the last wave of Covid, our doctors, residents and fellows stepped up several times to do so.”
UHN added that pay will be $50 an hour.
Saturday morning, UHN confirmed to CP24 that they were able to find workers for this weekend and that the emergency room is “already covered.”
“UHN, like many hospitals, was in a very difficult staffing situation over the weekend due to significantly higher numbers of patients entering the emergency department, sicker patients, staff shortages, staff illness and well-deserved and necessary holiday planning” , UHN spokeswoman Gillian Howard said in a statement.
Howard added that units across the organization were able to get admitted patients out of emergency rooms “as quickly as possible,” helping to ease the pressure on emergency rooms.
UHN consists of Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Michener Institute of Education.
GTA hospitals have faced staff shortages in previous waves of the pandemic, with the entire hospital system overwhelmed by an influx of infected patients and worker burnout.
As Ontario enters the seventh wave of the pandemic, Howard says hospitals continue to face similar obstacles.
“This wave of the pandemic is affecting staff in all healthcare organizations. Health professionals continue to rise to the challenge, but it has been a very long and difficult process and people are tired,” she said.
“These solutions are short term and we are focused on longer term solutions including international recruitment, training and implementation of clinical support, digital health solutions to name a few.”
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