TORONTO – History repeats itself. As has been the case for a few weeks, also this weekend, the emergency rooms of numerous hospitals in Ontario remained closed. It happened to the Durham site of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre (SBGHC), georgian Bay General Hospital and Ottawa’s Monfort Hospital that was closed at night to cope with an “unprecedented shortage” of nurses. And last week it was the turn of Perth, Listowel, Seaforth and Bowmanville, where Lakeridge Health temporarily closed its intensive care unit and relocated patients to the Ajax-Pickering and Oshawa campuses. 

Two weeks ago, Toronto’s University Health Network narrowly avoided the closure of Toronto General’s emergency room by using nursing students and trainee doctors.” Ontario is experiencing prolonged pressure on staff levels in the emergency room due to absences, vacation, staff fatigue and burnout related to Covid – reads a statement from the hospital – pressures that are felt by hospitals across the country and that have forced us to make the difficult decision to temporarily close our emergency room”.
The shortage of staff at an “unprecedented” level is raising concerns but according to the vice president in charge of Ontario Health Chris Simpson the situation could improve in the coming weeks with the decrease of the seventh wave of Covid-19. “It’s not really a new problem, but its persistence and severity are unprecedented,” Simpson said.
According to Ontario Health, ten hospitals have had to temporarily close emergency departments due to a lack of nursing services since June.
The system has always struggled for staff in remote areas, Simpson noted, but now the problem has extended to medium and large community hospitals and some university hospitals.
Retirements, burnout after more than two years of exhausting workload caused by the pandemic and covid-related absences, have hit the health system hard. The shortage of staff, according to Simpson, should peak in the coming weeks allowing a large number of people to return to work while, at the same time, fewer patients will need treatment for Covid. “I’m pretty optimistic… on the fact that by September than today we should have a better situation from a staff point of view,” Simpson said.
However, there could be future challenges in the fall, including a possible eighth wave of infections, and Simpson said solutions are being discussed in order to quickly dispose of more workers. “A top priority is to remove barriers that keep overseas-trained health workers out of the workforce,” he said.
On Thursday, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones gave regulatory institutes for nurses and doctors two weeks to develop plans to more quickly register internationally trained professionals. Jones and Prime Minister Doug Ford were accused by opposition parties of keeping a low profile in July and August as the crisis deepened. “There are no quick fixes for the temporary closure of hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units affecting Ontario due to staff shortages,” Jones cut short, “this is a national and international shortage,” Jones said.