Nova Scotia health unions say longstanding emergency room staffing shortages are a key reason two hospital managers warned last week that some patients could ‘die because of long waiting times.
Hugh Gillis, vice-president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, says he was disturbed to learn how severe wait times have become in emergency rooms across the province, to the point where surgeries have been canceled and patients moved to temporary locations.
He was responding to a recent email to staff from managers at Dartmouth General Hospital that said people were “dying” as a result of long waits in hospital emergency rooms. Nova Scotia Health clarified that the deaths were not occurring in the waiting rooms themselves.
“It was shocking to see Nova Scotia Health admit how much the crisis in our emergency departments has gotten worse, but that’s the reality frontline healthcare workers are facing,” Gillis said. in an email.
He said the Department of Health and the Nova Scotia Health Authority had long known a staffing crisis was brewing and hadn’t done enough to hold back ER staff.
Gillis said the union is holding meetings with workers who “have ideas on what can be done to improve things”, adding “it is high time we listened to them”.
COVID-19, flu, respiratory diseases playing a role
Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, said the problem was partly due to COVID-19, an increase in cases of flu and other respiratory illnesses, but she says shortages of labor could have been solved before the last wave. .
She said unions have been calling for more recruitment and retention measures for years, adding that a bonus scheme has not proven to be enough to retain emergency room nurses.
“We kept saying, ‘If you don’t fix this, we’re going to be in for a crisis,’ and that was never addressed by multiple governments,” Hazelton said.
Hazelton said there are emergency departments where nurses haven’t had an agreed vacation day in five months, and they also find they are often at the center of frustration for patients who have waited 10 at 2 p.m. for treatment.
She says it’s possible the strong language in the email from Dartmouth General Hospital managers was prompted by concerns that Nova Scotia’s ERs would follow the New Brunswick model, where two people are believed to have recently died. in hospital waiting rooms.
“If you have 30 or 40 patients waiting, you can’t expect a single triage nurse to initially assess and monitor those people,” she said. “They could deteriorate quickly and someone should be in charge of checking the waiting room.”
Entire NS Health System overcapacity
Nova Scotia Health Minister Michelle Thompson declined an interview, referring The Canadian Press to health authorities.
Dr. Mary-Lynn Watson, acting site manager for the emergency room at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Center in Halifax, said the underlying problem is that the province’s entire health system is in overcapacity and, consequently, more patients occupying emergency beds.
As surgeries are delayed and pop-up primary care clinics are set up to deal with the shortage of family doctors, these measures have not been enough to cope with the surge in patients.
Watson said one of the short-term measures being taken is to hire more ER staff on a temporary basis to do triage. “Halifax Infirmary has added additional staff to help support the nurses doing the triage,” Watson said. “So there are additional staff assigned to check vital signs to ensure [patients] don’t get sicker.”
However, she said the harsh reality is that some patients who need immediate nursing assessment and prompt treatment wait “many hours”.
Dr. David Kelvin, a researcher at Dalhousie University and holder of the research chair in vaccinology, said in an email that what is happening in emergency rooms in Nova Scotia stems from a number of factors.
“It’s sort of a perfect storm: flu, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), Omicron BA5, holiday parties, family reunions, and Christmas and New Years are approaching,” he wrote. He recommended that everyone get a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as a flu shot, with a high dose for people over 65.
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