Wait times in emergency at St. Joseph’s General Hospital Elliot Lake (SJGHEL) have gotten very serious, to the point that the emergency department had to be shut down on Monday night.
Hospital CEO Jeremy Stevenson says the increased wait times are due in large part to staff shortages, to higher than normal demand for services and to ongoing construction at the building that is limiting physical spaces available to see and treat patients.
HR Manager Bruce Beakley says the staff shortage has been created by a number of factors.
These include a severe shortage of registered nurses across the province, as well as at the hospital in Elliot Lake.
"This current RN shortage is no one individuals or group’s fault, it is a combination of forces combined to compete in a registered nurse talent market that was shrinking before the pandemic hit," Beakley says.
He says competition for registered nurses in the province and even across Canada is intense with over 100,00 health-care-related vacancies, according to the Canadian Medical Association.
"Fewer people are pursuing a career in Nursing, there are fewer graduating nurses," adds Beakley. "The Pandemic has taken its toll, on Professional nurses and their colleagues"
Add to that the complications of a high turnover rate in the nursing field and the fact that many senior nurses who are eligible to retire or are retired have little interest in causal or part-time work especially in a pandemic
Beakley also said recent changes to the way Ontario nurses are paid and issues complicating their lives have contributed to the shortage.
"The Bill 124 three-year salary freeze for hospitals has sent the wrong message to nursing professionals about their value and place in the system," he said. "There are fewer options for childcare and other supports a family may need when relocating, never mind the high unemployment rate for any spouse or partner who may be looking for local employment."
Relocation is further complicated by housing markets.
"There is a rural housing crisis, both in ownership and rental," Beakley said. "There is simply very little to offer in both the rental and purchase markets locally. Making relocation difficult if not impossible."
Another factor affecting Elliot Lake's ability to attract new nurses is the changing needs or interests of the workforce, he added.
"The new workforce has different needs and interests, part-time and casual work is preferred over full-time. We have a number of full-time vacancies SJGHEL cannot fill," he said. "Portability, travel and experiencing the world is the new horizon for many new RN’s
Elliot Lake's search is further complicated by its special needs, he said. Every nurse hired is expected to be able to work in all the areas of the hospital but not every nurse can.
While St. Joseph's General Hospital Elliot Lake's need for nurses' qualifications may be uniquely specific, its resources to attract those nurses are not outstanding.
"We are not the only employer offering cash incentives for new recruits, the playing field is fairly level as it relates to incentives and this is a temporary, slippery but necessary slope," Beakley said. "We are growing our workplace culture, we want to move from good to great, this starts with new leadership, more collaboration and new ideas while respecting our core values and how far others have already brought us."
The full text of a news release from hospital CEO Jeremy Stevenson follows.
While Emergency Department wait times continue to be an issue at all Hospitals in our province, the experience is likely to be more pronounced locally over this holiday season as our Hospital attempts to remain open to service patients.
SJGHEL continues to experience shortages of staff (heightened over the holiday season), a higher than normal demand recently, and continues to navigate necessary construction within the department that has substantially lessened the available space to see patients. We have no physical space. In fact, we are already operating at 120 per cent capacity, which means we are creating beds and space in an already over-capacity hospital.
However, our greatest challenge remains a significant shortage of health care staff. Our staff shortages have been so severe that we were forced to close our Emergency Department overnight on Monday of this week. While we were able to reopen on Tuesday morning, the risk of closure remains imminent over the coming days.
This has resulted in increased wait times.
We know when you come to our hospital you may already be scared, sick and frustrated. We realize that you have no way of knowing what is being managed behind the doors when you’re experiencing the stress of sitting in the waiting room.
We commit to you that our existing staff are doing their absolute best to continue to provide compassionate, professional care as expediently as they possibly can. We are looking at innovative ways to improve wait times, finding space for patients to be seen and to recruit more nurses.
We are pleased to have secured some additional Agency nurses starting tomorrow (Friday). We are also going to add an extra nurse in the emergency department.
You can help with our wait times by only coming to the emergency department if you have a medical emergency. If you feel that you require testing for COVID-19, please isolate appropriately at home, following all Algoma Public Health regulations and contact the Family Health Team at 705-461-8882.
We ask for your patience and understanding. Our administration is working extremely hard to try to find ways to keep our emergency department open and our existing health care staff are working extremely hard to maintain patient services throughout this shortage in health human resources.
We'd also like to remind the public that kindness means a lot. We ask that you please be kind to our front-line staff as we endeavour to retain this critical service for our community over the Christmas season.