PRHC Emergency Department Pressured With Max Bed Capacity and Staffing Shortages; Urge Patients to See Other Clinics If Possible

The Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) is experiencing heavy pressure having to operate with staff shortages, deal with constant maximum in-patient capacity and have COVID-19 outbreaks announced in a Zoom conference on Thursday morning.

There were 191 patients admitted to PRHC on July 17 which is considered a high number. Photo by Luke Best.

Dr. Lynn Mikula, chief medical executive and chief of staff issued says the pressure has been ongoing for a number of months that preceded the pandemic but COVID-19 has made the situation more serious.

“We are seeing higher patient acuity meaning that more people who come to the emergency department (ED) are sick enough to need admission to the hospital,” she said.

On July 17, PRHC reported that 191 patients needed to be admitted which is a high number according to Dr. Mikula. She continued saying last month would on average take a person eight hours from entering the ED to departure.

Dr. Mikula urges incoming patients to seek other forms of medical attention that can be treated outside the ED if possible but PRHC will not redirect patients if they deem an ED trip is not necessary.

She suggests using Telehealth Ontario to triage the severity of a condition to go to the emergency room or seek an alternative form such as a family doctor, walk-in clinic or virtual clinic.

“As a general rule of thumb, I think people know if they’re really ill,” she said. “If it’s a more mild condition that you would see your family doctor for, even if you can’t reach your family doctor, explore some of those other options.”

When questioned if Monkeypox has played a role in the contributing pressure, Dr. Mikula said it was an ‘evolving situation,’ they are not yet affected but will notify the public if and when it does.

PRHC has been dealing with staff shortages, especially in the nursing department but is also hiring ‘basically everybody’ according to Dr. Mikula. Roles include technologists, allied health staff and environmental and accountants.

As of June 2022, PRHC had a total of 275 vacancies with a 9.25 per cent vacancy rate for all hospital positions according to Michelene Ough, PRHC director of communications.

“Like other hospitals, we also have ongoing staffing shortages, said Dr. Mikula. “This has required us to focus our limited ED resources where they are most needed. The hospital is very full, operating at or above 100 per cent of its in-patient bed capacity.

On June 5, 2019, the provincial government imposed Bill 124 that wage-suppressed healthcare workers to only a one percent increase over three years. Dr. Mikula suggests that the bill partially affected the shortage but says they need a whole “coordinated system response” to help rectify the problem.

COVID-19 has been a contributing factor to the occupied bed capacity. PRHC reported an outbreak from two patients as of Wednesday and holds 18 people total who are infected with the infamous virus.

Dr. Mukula assured the public that PRHC is prepared in case of another COVID-19 wave or strain hits Peterborough.

“We continue to have our incident management system monitor COVID-19, meet regularly, look at the infection control measures and the other measures that we have in place. We’re ready to scale them up if needed,” she said. “I would say if that’s one thing the last two years have taught us, it’s that we need to be prepared to manage another wave at any time and there are a lot of people who are predicting another wave in the fall so ready and we’re waiting.”

PRHC stated they have explored several recruitment avenues such as the international nurse graduate program to help fill the void. They have been actively recruiting nurses during their pressured months.

“The problem is that every other hospital in Ontario is doing exactly the same thing so we’re all basically competing now for a limited pool but not only nurses but technologists and all the other support staff,” said Dr. Mukula.

Last fall, the federal government imposed mandatory vaccines for healthcare workers at the risk of losing their jobs for anyone failing to comply.

Mukula estimated over 95 per cent of healthcare workers were vaccinated at the time of the mandate and PRHC enforces a policy where all current employees are vaccinated.

“That is not one of the factors that have landed us in the staffing shortages situation we are facing today,” said Dr. Mukula.

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