Some patients at Montague ER could be asked to return next day
Doctors being overworked leads Health PEI to consider change to emergency room policy
Health PEI is looking at ways to help overworked doctors at the emergency department of the hospital in Montague.
One possibility could see non-urgent cases at Kings County Memorial Hospital being asked to come back the next day.
"Some of the options being considered include ... next day appointments for non-urgent care," said Dr. André Celliers, interim executive director of medical affairs for Health PEI, in a written statement to CBC News.
The policy would apply only to non-urgent cases. Patients might also be asked to schedule an appointment later in the same day, according to Health PEI.
The emergency department at KCMH has been closed or partially closed several times earlier this winter. In some cases, those closures were for only part of a day, but Health PEI says the new policy would aim to minimize them in the future.
"We hear physician concerns about long emergency department shifts, patient safety and physician burnout," Celliers said.
14-hour shifts could be split
The emergency department in Montague is open 14 hours a day, with one doctor working the entire shift. Health PEI is considering altering that schedule, so that one doctor starts the shift and another doctor finishes it.
Several of the eight physicians in the community currently share staffing duties on a rotating basis.
One doctor addressed Montague Town Council Monday night to bring councillors up to speed on the proposed policy changes.
Montague has no walk-in clinics, as found in some other communities on P.E.I. Walk-in clinics allow non-urgent patients to see a doctor on short notice.