An Ontario nurses’ union says it fears health care shortages could worsen in the Toronto area after a network of hospitals in the city had to use nursing students and doctors to maintain emergency rooms over the weekend.
University Health Network said Monday it was in a “very tight staffing situation over the weekend” and the emergency department is supported by staff in various units, including medical residents, personal support workers and nursing students.
UHN also said hospital wards have accelerated discharges and worked to quickly admit patients from the emergency department to the wards.
Catherine Hoy, president of the Ontario Nurses Association, said it was “shocking” that a Toronto hospital had to call for help to keep the emergency room open, noting that recent temporary emergency room closures have been concentrated in large degree in rural areas.
“It’s a Band-Aid. It tells me it’s the tip of the iceberg and we’re in trouble,” Hoy said in an interview Monday.
UHN operates two emergency departments — at Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals — but did not say which one was affected over the weekend.
RELATED: Toronto Western Hospital’s emergency department ‘covered’ for the weekend after risking closure amid staff shortages
The staffing crisis at the hospital network comes after smaller hospitals in Perth, Alexandria, Clinton, Listowel and Wingham had to close their emergency departments for hours or even days in recent weeks, with administrators citing staff shortages.
Hoy said the province is struggling to retain nurses, who she says are burned out after more than two years on the front lines of the pandemic and disillusioned by legislation that limits their pay raises to one per cent.
She expects staffing pressures will only increase in Toronto emergency rooms in the coming weeks. And those challenges could be exacerbated during the upcoming long weekend, when emergency rooms typically see an increase in visits, she said.
“(Hospitals) can’t count on making those calls for help because … they’re going to continue to burn out,” she said of the nurses.
The nurses’ union wants the government to scrap pay cap legislation and fast-track licensing for internationally trained nurses, among other measures.
UHN acknowledged that this weekend’s decisions are short-term fixes. The network said it was focused on “longer-term solutions”, including international recruitment and digital health solutions.
Dr. James Maskalik, an emergency physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said UHN’s interim response appeared to be effective and showed “a certain amount of creativity.”
But, he warned, this is not sustainable and risks taxing other parts of the hospital system.
“Nurses are the experts,” he said. And anything “less than their expertise”, such as students or health staff from other units, can mean that “patients may not receive expeditious care in a manner that is in the hands of an expert”.
The Ontario government said it is working to address health workforce capacity, including with one-time retention bonuses and funds to hire nurses to target specific areas of the province.
Prime Minister Doug Ford also recently said he would take inflation into account during upcoming health care contract negotiations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 25, 2022.
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