RED LAKE – Red Lake’s Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital may not have to close its emergency room to overnight patients, starting on Thursday night, but it does remain a possibility.
Hospital officials had proposed the closure due to staffing issues, but president and CEO Sue LeBeau suggested in an email statement she was confident they would be able to remain open, for now.
However, LeBeau said more closures could soon happen if the appropriate medical staff cannot be found.
“It’s very concerning. We are talking about not being about to provide care to our neighbours, to our friends, to the people we see in the grocery store and on the street, said LeBeau. “And to the people that matter to us. They’re in our neighbourhood. They’re in our community. They do so much for each other and we want to do the same to them.”
An impactful and sustainable result is something the Northern Ontarian hospitals desperately need as regional hospitals are scrambling to find physicians who are willing to set up their practice in town.
Although hospital staff take on 24-hour shifts to ensure patient care, staff are burning out, which adds to the problem: Overworked staff are unable to maintain the same amount of patient care as those who aren’t.
“There isn’t enough doctors, local or locum. We have some vacant lines in Red Lake, for instance, there are vacancies that we have not yet been able to recruit for,” said LeBeau.
Locum doctors from Southern Ontario require certain contractual amenities before they fly down to the remote area of the region. On top of their fee, hospitals pay for their flight, hotel room, and dining for a few days or a few weeks at a time before returning home.
Moreover, with staff shortages occurring around the province, those same locum doctors are trying to balance their duties are physicians with their personal needs by fulfilling positions closer to home.
Because of Red Lake’s remote location, the challenge is to incentive locum doctors to stay in the area. LeBeau offers the locum physicians who go to Red Lake all the credit.
“Family medicine and emergency medicine in a remote and rural community is very different than in a large community where you might have other practitioners, where you might have a cat scan and other equipment that you don’t have, so it’s really a specialty that takes a lot of courage and a lot of creativity and a willingness to know about a lot of things,” LeBeau added.
The staff at Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital have been working hard to find anyone who can help relieve the current staff from those long hours and keep the much-needed hospital department open.
“We are looking for solutions like nurse practitioners and physician assistants that will be able to lend a hand in ER and lend that expertise to alleviate some of the workloads, “said LeBeau. “We are looking at working with our Ontario Health team and our community partners to find options to treat patients in the community to prevent the need for emergency visits. But it’s tough.”
Another possible solution LeBeau explained is virtual medical care with partnering hospitals, so patients with less severe medical needs can see a physician through a video call.
Should the hospital's ER close overnight in the future, patients are advised to follow hospital guidelines.
- People with serious, emergent health problems should call 911 and request ambulance assistance for transport to the nearest hospital emergency department, available to offer treatment.
- For less emergent health problems, call the Telehealth Line at 1-866-797-0000.
- One may choose to travel to the next closest emergency department, which is in Dryden.
“This is unacceptable and requires immediate and meaningful attention from the provincial government,” said Mayor Fred Mota. “There should never be a moment where our community does not have ER services. Having a closure puts our entire community, neighbours, and visitors at risk. I would only assume these issues do not occur in Southern Ontario. Respectfully looking for action now, with impactful and sustainable results!”
In an open letter to Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, MPP Sol Mamakwa informs Minister Jones that
“This is the second time in four months that the hospital’s Emergency Department is being forced to close because of physician shortages. As a result, emergent patients must travel 2.5 hours to Dryden to receive care.”
Back in March, the Ontario NDP warned the provincial government that there would be an influx of emergency room closures around the region if immediate steps weren’t taken.
“It is unacceptable that in a province like Ontario, thousands of Northerners are being left without life-saving care. This is made worse by the fact that this closure is not a surprise – we anticipated it. Therefore, we should have been prepared for it,” stated Mamakwa.
Red Lake’s emergency room closure comes after Interim Ontario NDP Leader Peter Tabuns calls on the Ford government to repeal C-124, which restricts health care workers’ wages to a one per cent annual increase.
“Health care professionals are exhausted, their colleagues are leaving constantly, and we are reaching the point where there aren’t enough people to keep the doors to the ER open around the clock — and that’s terrifying,” said Tabuns. “Can you imagine arriving at the ER with a sick little one only to find the doors locked and the lights out? Can you imagine waiting hour after hour after hour with a loved one in pain while the doctors and nurses are simply too run off their feet to help you?”
The NDP is calling for solutions to the health staffing and wait times crisis, including:
- Amending the provincial budget to include funding for a major effort to recruit, train, retain and return nurses, doctors and PSWs
- Scrapping Bill 124 right now and paying health care professionals a decent wage
- Expediting recognition of credentials for thousands of internationally educated nurses and doctors
- Increasing hospital budgets so there can be enough staff on every shift to prevent burnout.
In addition to Tabun state, Mamakwa also suggests that the provincial government
- The government must work with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) to create a system of incentives to recruit physicians to Northwestern Ontario. These incentives should not compete with one another.
- The government must provide equitable funding for full-time physicians in Northwestern Ontario, vs. locums.
- The government should incentivize internationally trained physicians to work in the North by expediting their ability to gain a license.
- The government should work with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) to incentivize postgraduate trainees to undertake their residency in Northern Ontario.
- The government should work with NOSM to ensure that locums that are coming to rural Northern Ontario can bring residents from their own institutions.
- The government should increase opportunities – or even mandate the return of service obligations – for students and residents to work in the North.
Update: Hospital officials sent additonal information indicating they may not have to close the emergency room overnight on Thursday.
