N.S. emergency department closures, wait times up from last year

While the annual report on Nova Scotia's emergency departments show unplanned closures are up and people are waiting longer for care, the health minister says it doesn't reflect important changes made in the past few months.

The annual accountability report covers April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. It shows the number of hours emergency rooms were unexpectedly closed jumped to 41,923 — a 32 per cent from a year earlier.

Unplanned closures are usually caused by a lack of available emergency department staff, including doctors, nurses or paramedics, the report said. It could also be due to issues with the facility or being over capacity.

The unplanned closures account for about 53 per cent of the overall 79,813 hours emergency departments were closed in Nova Scotia, while the remaining 47 per cent were planned closures.

Wait times also up

Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital's emergency department in Middle Musquodoboit was closed the most — only open for 39 per cent of its scheduled hours. Strait Richmond Hospital outside of Port Hawkesbury was open 42 per cent of the time, followed by Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton at 43 per cent.

Across the province, emergency departments were open for 84 per cent of their planned hours, down slightly from 89 per cent in 2021-2022.

But when people did get to the emergency departments, wait times between intake and seeing a medical provider continued to be an issue.

The report said the Nova Scotia average was 2.8 hours, up slightly from last year's 2.3 hours.

The longest average wait was about eight-and-a-half hours at the Eastern Memorial Hospital in Canso, with the next longest at Cape Breton Regional Hospital of about five hours.

Many people left without seeing a provider at all. About 10 per cent of the total 530,118 emergency patients, or 55,039 patients, left before getting care, which is up from last year's 43,142 patients.

The report noted it's difficult to directly compare numbers to last year, as four smaller emergency departments in N.S. were converted to urgent treatment centres. They handle non-life-threatening medical issues.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson also said the report is eight months out-of-date, and doesn't reflect the current situation.

Minister says system 'can adapt'

Thompson said a lot of work has been done since the spring as part of the Progressive Conservative government's transformation of the health system. She said that includes virtual care, pharmacy primary-care clinics, mobile options and recent announcements of thousands of new long-term care beds.

"Underneath it all is an emergency system that can adapt to the situation at hand," Thompson told reporters Friday.

"I am very hopeful for the future and I think we have made strides in the past year and I expect that as these years go on, we will continue to see improvements in the system."

But NDP leader Claudia Chender said it's clear that serious issues continue to face Nova Scotia emergency departments, calling the increase in unplanned closures a "dangerous statistic."

"The health-care crisis continues to impact Nova Scotians. The Houston government has chosen to focus on one-off announcements rather than making sure our health-care system works," Chender said. 

Thompson said it's also important to factor in Nova Scotia's growing population and high rates of chronic disease. But, she said, the overall system is reliable and people should have confidence that they can "get the emergency care that they require."