An emergency room doctor is calling on governments to address the country’s shortage of health workers in light of recent emergency department closures and staff cuts in others.
The Canada Day long weekend saw two Ontario hospitals close their emergency room doors due to staff shortages, while other hospitals across the country struggled with “bed blocking” where there were more patients than beds to be sent to .
Dr. Lisa Salamon says the backlog of surgeries, along with increased demand from patients after two years of hospital shunning, is overwhelming hospitals. For example, at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, more than 300 people a day seek medical care, a 40 to 50 percent increase over pre-pandemic levels.
“I see such astronomical volumes come through our emergency departments … 10 to 20 percent more than you know, even in peak flu season, never mind the summer in June and July, where we typically have lower volumes,” Salamon told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday.
“It’s higher than we’ve seen before.”
The new Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants could cause a new wave of infections in the coming months, potentially increasing the number of hospitalizations, especially among unvaccinated and immunocompromised individuals, epidemiologists warn.
Salamon says that without immediate support from the government, patients can expect to continue to see emergency department closures and long wait times for “quite a while.”
“There are proposals for … independent outpatient centers to help with the backlog of surgical procedures, but that will take some time and the government needs to act now,” she said.
“We have a new health minister elected by the government (in Ontario) and they really need to partner with our organizations to solve this problem. You know, pretty fast.
But as bad as wait times are right now, Salamon says they’re a symptom of a deeper problem that’s systemic across the country.
“A lot of people don’t have family doctors, and that’s a huge problem,” she said.
The Canadian Medical Association also raised the issue and said cracks in Canada’s primary care system stemming from a lack of family doctors are leading to more patients seeking care in emergency rooms.
“I think really maybe the No. 1 priority that the government needs to focus on is really trying to fix the shortage of family doctors. And also make sure that every Ontarian has a team with their family doctor to look after their health.”
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