Rachel Notley is calling on the UCP government to devise a plan to prevent hospital staffing shortages and bed closures as some rural hospitals have had to periodically close or go without ER doctors.
By Emily Mertz Global News
Posted July 19, 2021 3
Several Alberta hospitals have been dealing with staffing shortages in their emergency departments, including three of Edmonton’s busiest EDs.
On Friday, Alberta Health Services confirmed 18 treatment beds at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s emergency department were temporarily closed “due to short-term staffing coverage issues.”
Twelve of those beds were closed for just four hours, AHS said.
“There was no reduction in care for patients in the emergency department during those four hours and EMS was not diverted to avoid the Royal Alexandra Hospital.”
READ MORE: Nurse shortages lead to emergency room bed closures in Alberta: doctor, union
Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley said Monday that bed closures due to staffing pressures aren’t isolated to the Royal Alex.
“Over the past weeks, we have seen critical staffing shortages in hospitals across Alberta.”
“This has led to bed closures and cancelled surgeries and repeated emergency room closures in the communities of Edson, St. Paul, Boyle, Elk Point, Galahad, Westlock, Fairview, Rocky Mountain House, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche, High Prairie, Slave Lake, Wainwright, Rimbey and Lacombe.
“Here in Edmonton, at the Royal Alex, one of the busiest emergency departments in western Canada, they had to close 18 beds, nearly half its capacity, because there aren’t enough front-line health-care workers to operate safely.”
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“Over the weekend, we learned that another of Edmonton’s busiest hospitals, the Grey Nuns, will be periodically closing its endoscopy unit over the next few weeks and transporting emergency patients who need that service when the unit is closed, to other hospitals,” Notley said.
Covenant Health confirmed the endoscopy unit at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital “will operate at 80 per cent outpatient capacity” for the next two weeks “as a result of staffing coverage issues due to pre-approved staff vacations and unexpected absences for non-COVID-related medical concerns.
“No other departments within the Grey Nuns are facing service impacts of this nature.”
AHS said 11 spaces at the University of Alberta Hospital emergency department were closed for 12 hours overnight and reopened at 8 a.m. Monday.
AHS said the ED remained open “for all patients needing emergency care as usual,” “there was no reduction in care for patients in the emergency department” and “EMS was not diverted to avoid the UAH and Stollery.”
READ MORE: ‘Burnout is real’: COVID-19 pandemic takes mental health toll on health-care workers
AHS issued two notices on Friday, advising of two other staffing shortages.
There will be no physician overnight (from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily) at the St. Theresa General Hospital emergency department in Fort Vermillion from July 19 to July 31, AHS said. Nursing staff will provide assessments and triage patients in the ED and refer them to the Northwest Health Centre in High Level, if needed. EMS calls will be re-routed to the Northwest Health Centre (81 kilometres away) during this time.
Also, the Sacred Heart Community Health Centre in McLennan was without an on-site emergency department physician over the weekend, AHS said. EMS calls were re-routed to High Prairie Health Complex (50 km away), Peace River Community Health Centre (80 km away) or Valleyview Healthcare Centre (90 km away), AHS said.
“This is a dangerous situation,” Notley said.
“The closures are happening because people are leaving.”
She slammed the UCP’s plan to cut Alberta nurses’ salaries, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it “disrespectful, demoralizing and damaging.”
READ MORE: Alberta nurses call government-proposed 3% salary rollback ‘a kick to the gut’
The opposition leader said the premier and health minister need to keep hospitals open and “abandon these plans to cut the wages of the Albertans who work in them.”
Notley said in other regions, bonuses are being used to encourage health-care workers to stay on and keep working. In Alberta, however, they’re looking at long-term salary rollbacks, she said.
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“These folks who work in health care have gone through career-level high marks for stress and anxiety and emergency,” Notley added.
“Having gone through that, it’s shocking that their reward is to be told they’ll earn less afterward.”
Health Minister Tyler Shandro said the NDP continues to politicize issues, “lie about our response to the pandemic” and “what’s happening in the province.”
“That’s their track record,” he said at a news conference Monday.
READ MORE: Health care job vacancies in Canada are soaring despite COVID-19 demand. Here’s why
Shandro said AHS has done great work dealing with the pressures exacerbated by the pandemic.
“AHS has done an amazing job in being able to make sure resources are deployed, to make sure people are getting the critical care they need, surgeries are happening… They’ve done an amazing job acting dynamically as the situation changes across the province,” the health minister said.
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In a statement to Global News Monday, AHS spokesperson James Wood said “any Albertan who is in need of acute care will get care.”
Wood said changes to service aren’t new and it is common for resources to be adjusted, especially in the summer, to align with staffing levels.
“Temporary bed closures are only done as a last resort and we work to ensure patients continue to receive safe, high-quality care.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact through staff redeployment and a depletion of the available pool of casual staff, which is being seen across Canada.”
AHS also said the staffing shortages are due to vacation time being taken by staff who worked extremely hard over the last 17 months.
“Staff are taking well-deserved vacation time and we thank them for their incredible efforts through the waves of the pandemic in Alberta to date.”
Recruitment efforts continue, Wood said.
“AHS is working on recruitment plans that are targeted to fill current vacancies by the end of August and September.
“AHS continues to aggressively recruit physicians for rural areas. New physicians have recently been recruited in McLennan, Falher, Valleyview, Barrhead, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Cold Lake and St. Paul.”
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While staffing challenges were expected, Alberta has worked hard to recruit health-care workers to the province, Shandro said.
“We have 1,000 more nurses than we had a year ago, so we are recruiting more.”
“We have net — month over month, quarter over quarter, year over year — more positions, more nurses because we continue to show not just the rest of the country but the rest of the world that Alberta is an amazing place not just to come to work and serve residents in your profession but also a great place to raise your children.”
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Shandro says NDP exaggerating health-care shortages, Notley calls bed closures 'very real'
Adam Lachacz
CTVNewsEdmonton.ca
Digital Journalist
Published Monday, July 19, 2021
Alberta Minister of Health Tyler Shandro speaks at a press conference in Calgary on May 29, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
EDMONTON -- The minister of health in Alberta says the NDP is “lying” and exaggerating claims about shortages in health-care staff in the province leading to temporary service level reductions.
Tyler Shandro was asked by reporters about staffing shortages at health-care facilities across the province at a media availability Monday.
Multiple hospitals across the province have faced bed closures and staff shortages. Earlier this month the Royal Alexandra hospital – the largest in Edmonton – closed six beds in their emergency room.
On Friday, another 12 beds were closed at that facility until receiving morning staff relief.
Additionally, Fort Vermillion’s St. Theresa General Hospital emergency department announced on Friday that it would have no overnight physician coverage temporarily until the end of the month.
McLennan’s Sacred Heart Community Health Centre had limited physician coverage over the past weekend.
On Saturday, the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton reduced nurse service levels at their endoscopy unit due to “unforeseen medical leaves of several staff in rapid succession.”
The minister maintained on Monday that staffing reductions are temporary and that they are resulting from residual pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic and seasonal vacations.
“I understand the NDP are going to – as they’ve done for the last year and a half – hypercriticize issues and quite frankly lie,” Shandro said, “about our response to the pandemic and lying about what is actually happening in the province.
“AHS has done an amazing job in being able to make sure that resources are deployed, and to make sure that people get critical care that they need throughout the province,” he added. “Surgeries are happening as they need throughout the province. They’ve done an amazing job acting dynamically as the situation changes throughout the province.”
When asked if Alberta is attracting health care workers to the province, Shandro said recruitment targets were being met.
“We have a thousand more nurses than we had a year ago,” he said. “We are recruiting more. Month over month, quarter for quarter, year over year, we have more physicians, more nurses because we continue to show Alberta is a great place to live.
“Everybody wants to come to Alberta because it is an amazing place to live.”
Alberta Minister of Health Tyler Shandro speaks at a press conference in Calgary on May 29, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
EDMONTON -- The minister of health in Alberta says the NDP is “lying” and exaggerating claims about shortages in health-care staff in the province leading to temporary service level reductions.
Tyler Shandro was asked by reporters about staffing shortages at health-care facilities across the province at a media availability Monday.
Multiple hospitals across the province have faced bed closures and staff shortages. Earlier this month the Royal Alexandra hospital – the largest in Edmonton – closed six beds in their emergency room.
On Friday, another 12 beds were closed at that facility until receiving morning staff relief.
Additionally, Fort Vermillion’s St. Theresa General Hospital emergency department announced on Friday that it would have no overnight physician coverage temporarily until the end of the month.
McLennan’s Sacred Heart Community Health Centre had limited physician coverage over the past weekend.
On Saturday, the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton reduced nurse service levels at their endoscopy unit due to “unforeseen medical leaves of several staff in rapid succession.”
The minister maintained on Monday that staffing reductions are temporary and that they are resulting from residual pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic and seasonal vacations.
“I understand the NDP are going to – as they’ve done for the last year and a half – hypercriticize issues and quite frankly lie,” Shandro said, “about our response to the pandemic and lying about what is actually happening in the province.
“AHS has done an amazing job in being able to make sure that resources are deployed, and to make sure that people get critical care that they need throughout the province,” he added. “Surgeries are happening as they need throughout the province. They’ve done an amazing job acting dynamically as the situation changes throughout the province.”
When asked if Alberta is attracting health care workers to the province, Shandro said recruitment targets were being met.
“We have a thousand more nurses than we had a year ago,” he said. “We are recruiting more. Month over month, quarter for quarter, year over year, we have more physicians, more nurses because we continue to show Alberta is a great place to live.
“Everybody wants to come to Alberta because it is an amazing place to live.”
BED CLOSURES ARE 'VERY REAL': NDP
Rachel Notley told CTV News Edmonton in a statement that the bed closures and staff reductions are "very real."
“These bed closures are publicly reported by AHS," she said. "They are very real, and they are putting Albertans at risk. It’s disgraceful that Tyler Shandro continues to gaslight Albertans and refuse to accept responsibility for his ongoing failures as Health Minister.”
Notley added that the health-care staff shortages are creating a “dangerous situation.”
“We have repeatedly called on Tyler Shandro to take action, but all he has offered Albertans is excuses and finger-pointing,” the leader of the official opposition said. “Let’s be clear: we are here because Jason Kenney acted last and acted least in the second and third waves."
Notley called on Shandro to create a plan to keep Alberta’s hospitals open, without reductions in service.
“Our healthcare heroes are burnt-out and patients who are arriving much sicker than before because their conditions have been left unaddressed for a year and a half.”
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