Hospital Emergency departments feel the pressure as wait times increase
'We're seeing a very high number of patients who are quite ill,' says Guelph hospital
Hospitals in Waterloo region and Wellington County are reporting long wait times, bed closures and heavy workloads in their Emergency departments
Erin Ariss, vice president of Region 4 with the Ontario Nurses Association — covering Guelph, Waterloo Region and the Golden Horseshoe — says emergency room healthcare has been a pressure cooker that has gotten worse.
A recent post on Instagram claimed Guelph General Hospital was "dangerously understaffed this past weekend" and added it was going to face some shortages in the coming weeks.
Ariss said "[there] are approximately 20 registered nurse vacancies in that department. And as a result, the hospital has had to close a ten bed area in their Emergency department. And this will be closed, I'm told, for two weeks until the staffing levels can be re-evaluated."
"The nurses there tell me that 28 of the 30 beds in that Emergency department were occupied by admitted patients. So they were trying to run an Emergency department out of two beds available."
A spokesperson for Guelph General says when the hospital is short of nursing staff they will periodically close an area of the Emergency department that has "four stretchers and four chairs for patients to sit in."
Melissa Skinner, Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Executive says the high patient numbers Ariss speaks of came down as the week progressed.
"At one point after the long weekend on July 4th we had 23 patients, which quickly went down to 18," said Skinner.
"We are seeing a very high number of patients who are quite ill, far more than we have seen in many years. The good news is that as of Wednesday evening we have seen some relief. Today we have stabilized a bit and are now holding eight patients waiting to be admitted."
Like other hospitals in Ontario, Skinner says they're struggling with vacancies as well as ensuring as many staff as possible take time off for summer vacation.
CBC K-W reached out to other hospitals in the area to gauge delays at their Emergency departments and found similar stories.
Waterloo region hospitals
Waterloo region hospital officials say, like the rest of the province, they are seeing a high volume of patients.
Cambridge Memorial Hospital says it continues to have staffing issues related to clinical staff in the Emergency department. The the average wait time to see a physician in the first week of July was about 4.5 hours.
Ron Gagnon, President and CEO of Grand River Hospital and Sherri Ferguson, Interim President at St. Mary's General Hospitals issued a joint statement saying they've operated over-capacity almost every day prior to and since the pandemic was declared.
"This, along with a number of staff who are off due to COVID-19 or other absences, causes significant capacity pressures at our hospitals and for patients, which can mean longer wait times," said the statement.
"We encourage anyone that requires emergent care please don't hesitate, come to the Emergency department. If your needs are non-emergent in nature please access options available within the community."
Fergus, Mount Forest, Palmerston
Hospital officials in Fergus, Mount Forest and Palmerston say they have not had to close the Emergency department or redirect patients, but all of them are experiencing higher than normal volumes.
They say that's primarily because of an increased population, more patients without local family doctors who access the Emergency department for care and the rising baby-boomer population who require more healthcare.
"As ED wait times in Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo become longer, patients travel to our rural Wellington hospitals in hopes of being seen sooner which increases our volumes and duration of time to be seen," said a statement from spokesperson Alison Armstrong.
"If there is a patient in the ED requiring admission to the hospital, and there are no beds, we must hold the patient in ED until a bed becomes available. This in turn causes a delay in a new ED patient being seen as staff continues to provide care for the patient requiring admission."