Doctor shortage putting strain on QEH emergency room, physician says

A shortage of emergency room doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is not only affecting wait times for patients, but the well-being of the physicians, says Dr. Trevor Jain.

The ER at the Charlottetown hospital has been down two doctors from the full complement of 14 for the past six months, he said, leaving the remaining doctors — including himself — to work more shifts than "would normally be expected."

"Physicians are doing more night shifts, we know that is extremely detrimental to their health and their well-being and their work-life balance, and this has an effect on the rest of the group," he said.

Compounding the problem is a larger number of patients coming to the ER, many seeking primary care due to a lack of family physicians on the Island, Jain said. There are more than 13,000 people on P.E.I.'s patient registry who do not have a family doctor.

Jain said in the 11 years he'd been working in the QEH emergency room, patient visits have gone from about 40,000 visits a year to 50,000.

Shortage across the country

But he said P.E.I. is not alone. He is attending a Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians conference in Halifax, where he is hearing similar issues from doctors across the country.

"I've heard at this conference that's there's 200 to 400 jobs available in Canada as emergency room physicians. I've heard in the next two years  that number could be approaching 800 to 1,000."

He said there are representatives from many provinces, including P.E.I., who are at the conference trying to recruit doctors. But often it's a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

"Physicians are a mobile workforce within Canada, especially if they are emergency room physicians," he said.

"For P.E.I., in order to retain our current workforce and to recruit, we've got to be competitive with the market because other provinces are hurting for board-certified emergency physicians as well."

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