QEII hospital emergency bed shortage continues in Halifax

A code census has been called for the second straight day at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax as officials work to add more beds to deal with increased demand at the emergency department.

Nova Scotia Health Authority spokesperson Everton McLean said there is no specific reason behind the increased number of emergency department visits.

"We get spikes of volume from time to time," he said.

A code census is put in place when the demand at the emergency department outstrips the supply of services that can be provided.

Tuesday's code census was put in place at around 7 a.m.

On Monday, a code census was called at about 11 a.m., and there were also three surgeries cancelled because of a shortage of surgical beds due to a delay in discharging some medical and cardiology patients because of their conditions.

Possible surgery cancellations

McLean did not have any information about whether any surgeries will be cancelled today, but Dr. David Milne, the president of Doctors Nova Scotia and an anesthetist at the QEII feels more cancellations are inevitable.

"It certainly appears the same thing will happen at the QEII today," he said.

Milne said code censuses cause staff morale problems and are symptoms of a health care system that is under stress.

"We need to come up with a really robust provincial plan with regard to provision of clinical care to Nova Scotians. The flood at the VG four weeks ago has highlighted all of the problems with not having appropriate infrastructure and we need to do that," he said.

McLean said the shortage of beds at the hospital is in part due to the flood, but said that since that time officials have increased the supply of beds by opening beds in other areas of the hospital, as well as converting single-bed rooms to have two beds in them.