There are increasing calls in the Maritimes for governments to deal with labor shortages in the health care sector, as hospitals are being forced to close emergency rooms now that exhausted workers can wait for summer to recover from pandemic-related stress. Taking holidays.
In New Brunswick, health care workers are leaving the province due to poor working conditions, non-competitive pay and unfair workloads, according to Liberal health critic Jean-Claude D’Amours.
Green Party health critic Michelle Beaton says staff shortages at Alberton’s Western Hospital in Prince Edward Island are severe enough to force its emergency department to close if one person is ill. He said the difficulties in recruiting and retaining health care workers in the province have been increasing for years.
“We need a very specific and strategic plan to ensure that the people working within the system are treated well,” Beaton said in a recent interview.
Last week, New Brunswick Health Minister Dorothy Shepherd said the province was recruiting traveling nurses and encouraging retired nurses to re-enter the workforce to cover holidays.
As of April 1, the Horizon Health Network – New Brunswick’s operator of English-language hospitals – has hired 11 retirees and about 180 nursing students to work this summer. Meanwhile, the Vitalite Health Network, which operates French-language hospitals, has hired 200 nursing students.
“We recognize the challenges in our health care system’s workforce, and there are several long-term efforts underway to improve the situation,” New Brunswick Labor Minister Trevor Holder said in a statement. “While we are making significant progress, it will take time to fully address these challenges.”
Some emergency departments of the hospital have been closed overnight due to shortage of staff. Horizon Networks posted a tweet on June 24, saying it was facing significant staff shortages, and cautioned that patients with non-urgent medical issues could face longer waits. .
The tweet prompted a reaction on Twitter.
“It’s been like this for years and is getting worse,” wrote one person. “I’m afraid I won’t survive if my illness gets worse.” Another person said that the government needs to spend some of its budget surplus to improve working conditions in health centres.
Back at PEI, Beaton said that there are “basically no walk-in clinics” in the western part of the province, so people have no choice but to go to the emergency department. When emergency rooms are closed, she said, “people are going to travel over an hour to get to the next facility to get the care they need.”
Health PEI spokeswoman Jessica Bruce said smaller staff at Western Hospital were working hard to prevent unplanned service interruptions. “We continue to consider various options to ensure that patients get the care they need,” she said.
In Nova Scotia, nurses in the province are calling for action to address chronic staffing shortages that they say have been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nova Scotia Nurses Union says there are approximately 1,400 vacancies for registered nurses, and 250 vacancies are open for licensed practical nurses.
The waiting list for long-term care at a record level in NS. Experts warn it will get worse
Nova Scotia’s progressive conservative government pledged an election campaign to spend heavily on the province’s ailing health system. The $13.2 billion budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year presented in March includes $5.7 billion for health care – an increase of $413.4 million over last year’s spending. But Premier Tim Houston has warned residents not to expect rapid changes.
Dr Mark McMillan, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society, said the growing number of job vacancies in health care across Canada is worrying.
“We’ve seen this human health resource issue come to us for years,” he said in a recent interview. “COVID-19 has certainly amplified that issue and exposed how fragile the health care system was _ not only in New Brunswick but across the country.”
McMillan said action by governments is still needed, but it will require a long-term solution.
“Five, 10, 15 years from now, what is the patient demographic going to be? What is needed in this province? How many physicians do we need in Northern New Brunswick, Southern New Brunswick, East and West? How many nurses do we need per unit? We need to be more proactive,” he said.
He said the health care sector workers are tired and need a break from the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The last two and a half years have been very stressful and we really have to make sure these physicians and nurses get their time for their mental health,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 3, 2022.
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