Rural emergency rooms cut hours amid staffing crunch

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This article was published 25/03/2022 (1304 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Community leaders in rural Manitoba are worried their small-town hospitals could face further cuts or be shut down amid emergency room closures that last days or months.

Rural hospitals, and the residents they serve, have been hit particularly hard by nurse and doctor shortages, which are plaguing Canada’s health-care systems.

At some of Manitoba’s smallest hospitals, where there is little cover, just one employee calling in sick can lead to an ER closing for at least part of the day or services being postponed.

In the Prairie Mountain Health region, which covers a vast area in western Manitoba, ERs at several of its 20 hospitals face intermittent closures or have hours-long gaps in their daily coverage due to shortages.

The ER at Tiger Hills Health Centre in Treherne was closed between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday due to a staff shortage, said a Prairie Mountain Health advisory.

Will Eert, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Norfolk Treherne, said he is concerned about the hospital’s future and what would happen to the community if it no longer had a health centre.

“If we start shutting down the ER intermittently, do we eventually lose our hospital overall?” said Eert. “This is a bad situation and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. For a rural community, having a hospital is a major asset to keeping your population healthy and maintaining your community.”

When Treherne’s ER closes temporarily, the nearest is 20 kilometres away in Notre Dame de Lourdes, he said.

Health care is one of the biggest employment sectors in the municipality, but numbers are dwindling as retiring workers are not replaced, said Eert.

The province has announced plans to close Treherne’s ambulance station and move staff and vehicles to Glenboro, about 45 kilometres west.

“That’s not acceptable at all,” said Eert.

Hospitals in Carberry and Glenboro, which share services, won’t have functioning ERs for a 12-hour stretch Saturday, between 7:30 a.m. Monday and 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, and for 24 hours from 7:30 a.m. April 4.

Residents are advised to call 911 in an emergency. Paramedics will transport patients to an ER that is open, said Carberry Mayor Stuart Olmstead.

If a patient has to be transferred out of the area to a place such as Brandon or Neepawa, which are both about 30 minutes away, it means Carberry’s coverage could be down to just one ambulance, said Olmstead.

“If you’re going to be shipping our residents out, we want to have that service at a moment’s notice,” he said. “When we have an event in our community, we want to see ERs open and ambulances available.”

He’s worried there could be further cuts or the reorganization of health services in the region.

The regional health authority has become more transparent when it comes to ER closures, said Olmstead.

“Before, we would find out about closures after the fact,” he said.

Now, advisories are issued in advance. They’re posted on Prairie Mountain Health’s site and social media.

According to the latest ones, Shoal Lake/Strathclair Health Centre’s ER is closed until further notice, while the one at Melita Health Centre will be shut from Tuesday morning to April 10.

Roblin Health Centre’s ER is closed on weekdays, Ste. Rose du Lac’s hospital has no emergency services daily between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., and Souris Health Centre’s ER closes for a 24-hour period every Monday at 8 a.m.

The ER at Deloraine’s hospital was scheduled to reopen at 8 a.m. Friday after a 24-hour closure.

Having just one staff member on sick leave or for another unexpected reason can lead to a closure, said Prairie Mountain Health CEO Brian Schoonbaert.

“Due to the overall nursing shortage, not just rurally but nationally, we are struggling to find nurses, especially at the last minute,” he said. “It can be precarious at times because of not having staff to be able to pick up additional shifts or not being able to get agency staff in.”

The region covers about 67,000 square kilometres from the 53rd parallel to the Canada-U.S. border from north to south, and the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary to Waterhen Lake, Lake Manitoba and Treherne from west to east.

With employees tired from the COVID-19 pandemic and in need of a break, some aren’t as willing to pick up extra shifts, said Schoonbaert.

He said the health authority tries to recruit new graduates and internationally educated nurses and physicians, and offers financial incentives such as grants, loans and moving expenses.

“As regions, we’re all competing for the same students or people who might be interested in moving to a new region or province,” he said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching