It\u0027s a tough situation amid shutdowns, staffing shortages and growing concern.
The temporary closures of some rural emergency departments, including in Perth, have become symbols of the crisis. But no hospital in the province is free from the pressures caused by worsening staff shortages and increased demand. The arrival of a highly contagious summer COVID-19 wave has many on edge.
Compared to a provincial average of 2.1 hours for patients to be initially assessed by a doctor in emergency departments, patients at CHEO wait 3.7 hours, patients at The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus wait 3.6 hours and those at Queensway Carleton wait 3.4 hours. And that is just for an initial assessment.
On Friday, Cornwall Community Hospital warned of longer than usual waits in emergency amid the highest demand in five years, critical staff shortages and rising numbers of alternate levels of care patients — who don’t need to be in the hospital but have nowhere safe, such as long-term care, to go. “It is all rooted in running a hospital system at 100 per cent or higher for 15 years, which greatly reduced its capacity to deal with the unexpected,” said Dale. “For 15 years, successive previous governments chose efficiency over all objectives. We just don’t have the capacity that other jurisdictions do.”
“The nurse called at 11 p.m. crying and begging her colleague to come in. She was the only nurse for 21 acute care patients. Colleague got out of bed and dragged her tired, broken body in after just working four 12-hour days. The health care system is collapsing.”“The reality is, we are almost at the point of no return,” she said. “It is not about staffing shortages. It is about nursing shortages. I have been warning about this for years.
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