No more Saturday ER service at Montague hospital starting Jan. 11, says Health P.E.I.
CEO Melanie Fraser says closure was not a decision that was made lightly
The emergency department at Kings County Memorial Hospital in Three Rivers will temporarily stop operating on Saturdays in the new year, says Health P.E.I.
The agency said the ER at the eastern P.E.I. hospital will be open Monday to Friday only starting Jan. 11, citing staffing challenges. It will continue to be closed on Sundays.
Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser said the emergency department is experiencing a shortage of staff at a time when demand for emergency services is increasing, and pausing the Saturday service will let her officials stabilize the situation and continue to develop a long-term plan to ensure sustainable emergency care.
Fraser said it was not a decision that was made lightly.
"Staffing has been a struggle there on Saturdays particularly, so rather than making a week-by-week decision on keeping the facility open on Saturdays, for more stability for the community and for the scheduling for staff, we've made a decision to preserve the staffing for Monday to Friday."
Health P.E.I. said its long-term plan includes having three physicians working Monday through Friday in the emergency room at the Montague facility.
It said efforts to increase access points to care outside the ER are also part of the stabilization work, including expanding access to services like the new walk-in clinic at the Down East Mall in Montague, which opened Dec. 16.
Mary Vandenbroek Grant, part of a community group that raised more than $200,000 for the walk-in clinic, said that on the day it opened, one doctor saw 23 patients in a four-hour period.
She said the decision to close the KCMH's emergency department on Saturdays is "disappointing" but not surprising, given the ongoing challenges within the Prince Edward Island health-care system.
"Things haven't changed a whole lot yet, so the whole community is extremely concerned about not having an ER to go to in case of an emergency."
Health P.E.I. said in October that it is looking to hire five full-time emergency room doctors for KCMH.
At the time, Fraser cited incentives including higher pay rates and bonuses for locums covering rural areas that will increase each time they work at a hospital outside the Island's urban centres.
In the long term, the five additional doctors that will eventually be hired will boost the Three Rivers hospital's staffing levels from 1.5 full-time equivalent positions to 6.5.
Last Saturday shift Jan. 4
Health P.E.I. said the Kings County hospital's ER often sees a disproportionate number of non-urgent patients who could be treated by primary care providers — if they had access to one.
The final emergency department Saturday shift will be Jan. 4 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. The department's normal weekday hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. will not change.
Health P.E.I. said it will reassess the situation in April.