The Canadian Press Published Friday, July 29, 2022 5:19 PM EDT Last Updated Friday, July 29, 2022 5:19 PM EDT
Several Ontario hospitals were reducing services in certain areas over the long weekend due to staff shortages, as the Ontario Nurses Union called on the province to address what it called an alarming situation.
Emergency departments were to be closed at Wingham and District Hospital from Saturday evening until early Sunday and at Listowel Memorial Hospital for most of the day on Sunday. In Huron County, Seaforth Community Hospital said it will temporarily close its emergency room overnight because of staff shortages.
In Bowmanville, Ontario, the local hospital was temporarily closing its intensive care unit due to staff shortages. Lakeridge Health, which operates the site and four other hospitals in Durham Region, said staff from its Bowmanville facility will be consolidated into critical care sites at Ajax Pickering and Oshawa hospitals.
In Orangeville, Ont., Headwaters Health Center said it is shifting midwifery services from Thursday to Monday due to a lack of pediatrician coverage. It says there are protocols in place to support patients if they come to the hospital in labour.
The Ontario Nurses Association said it heard from members about staffing shortages affecting more than a dozen hospitals in various ways ahead of the long weekend.
“They’re either closing, reducing beds, transferring patients and things like that,” association president Catherine Hoy said in an interview Friday.
Hoy said her union is “alarmed” by the impact the nursing shortage is having on patient care in Ontario, and called on the government to meet with health care unions to discuss solutions.
“We cannot wait any longer to resolve this crisis that is harming Ontarians and their access to health care,” Hoy said.
Ontario hospitals have faced staffing strains in recent weeks, with some having to temporarily close emergency departments while others had to rely on redeployed staff and students to cover shifts.
As examples of solutions to the crisis, Hoy suggested faster licensing of internationally trained nurses to work in the province and speeding up a program to help registered practical nurses become registered nurses.
Nurses are also seeking more assured access to personal protective equipment, she added, as exhausted workers face continued risk from COVID-19 during a seventh wave of infections with few public health measures to mitigate the spread.
There should also be incentives to bring back retired nurses, who will be needed to train new graduates and nurses trained outside of Ontario, Hoy said. She proposed repealing legislation that limits wage increases to one percent a year to attract workers to the district.
The government said hospitals are expected to have plans in place to reduce the risk to patient care when wards are closed.
These plans should include communication with the public about reductions and alternative care options, staff assigned to meet patients unaware of the emergency department closing, a process for hospitalization, and a staffed ambulance on standby for a closed emergency department, if possible .
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Sylvia Jones declined an interview request from The Canadian Press on Friday, but provided a written statement from Jones saying the province is working with “all partners,” including hospitals and unions, to address ” the challenge of maintaining the necessary staffing levels.”
She pointed to previous government efforts to increase staffing levels, including hiring internationally educated nurses and expanding a summer physician program that connects doctors with hospitals in need.
“We have an ambitious plan for the largest health recruitment and training initiative in the province’s history, which is already starting to pay off,” Jones said in a statement.
Jones has rarely spoken to the media since being sworn in as health minister last month. Critics are calling for her to take a more public leadership role in discussing the province’s hospital crisis and the government’s planned response to it.
Those calls were echoed by the opposition New Democrats on Friday amid news of the expected closure of the Ontario Nurses Association.
“Where is Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones?” health critic Frans Gelinas said in a written statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 29, 2022.
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