Hospitals across P.E.I. are over capacity, leading to hours-long wait times in the province’s emergency rooms and limited bed availability, Health P.E.I. said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
Medical director of hospital services and patient flow Dr. Ken Farion said emergency departments across the Island — including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, Prince County Hospital in Summerside, Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague and Western Hospital in Alberton — are all feeling the strain.
He said the QEH alone admitted more than 260 patients as of Thursday morning.
“In terms of sheer occupancy numbers, this morning we were at the highest number that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has really ever had admitted,” Farion said.
“That’s a bit of a milestone, not necessarily one we are proud of.”
We anticipate this may get a little worse before it gets better.— Dr. Ken Farion
He said the situation has been been complicated because all of the province’s ERs have more admitted patients stuck waiting for beds than usual.
Farion said the QEH emergency department can take up to 30 patients — though staff try to keep it to no more than 24 — and has reached capacity several times in the past week.
“We have a relatively fixed number of staff, we have a relatively fixed number of beds and spaces that are considered hospital rooms, and we are now exceeding that.”
Health P.E.I. plans to open extra walk-in clinics and increase home care to help divert patients from its acute-care hospitals, which the agency says are overflowing. CBC’s Laura Meader has more.
Farion said those with lower-priority problems have been waiting “many, many, many hours to be seen,” exceeding 12 to 14 hours in some cases, especially overnight when only one doctor is working.
“We’re quite worried,” he said, adding that officials have been meeting daily over the last week to try to tackle the problem.
New measures introduced
Health P.E.I. has established an emergency response it’s calling a Hospital Overcapacity Command Table to try to improve patient flow.
The measures include:
- Prioritizing long-term care beds for patients now in the hospital.
- Increasing available critical-care beds, including intensive and progressive-care beds.
- Expanding bed capacity beyond traditional spaces.
- Streamlining discharge policies, including assessments for home-care services.
- Co-ordinating additional transportation support for discharges.
- Using home-care services/programs to maintain patient care at home and to expedite discharges from hospital.
- Establishing dedicated discharge areas in hospitals with specialized staffing to support timely discharges.
- Reducing in-patient transition times.
Islanders urged to seek alternate care
Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser said in Thursday’s news release that the measures aim to help Islanders receive the highest level of care possible.
“Health PEI is fully committed to providing excellent care, even under these challenging circumstances,” she said in the release.
Farion urged Islanders who need medical care to use expanded care now offered through pharmacies, the virtual health-care platform Maple, family doctors if they have one, and walk-in clinics.
It will likely be several weeks before the crisis eases, Farion said, because cold and flu season is just getting underway.
“We anticipate this may get a little worse before it gets better and may take a little time to alleviate.”
