Quinte Health is warning of potential summer staffing issues at hospitals across the region.
In a virtual media conference on Thursday, President and CEO of Quinte Health Stacey Daub and Chief of Staff Dr. Colin MacPherson outlined that some hospitals would face some serious strain on the system with North Hastings in particular at risk of facing more intermittent closures then it did last year.
“We’re seeing higher volumes coming to the emergency department,” Dr. MacPherson told media.
“There’s simply higher volumes of patients in our communities that don’t have primary care physicians. We also know that in Picton in particular we see a higher volume of people who typically are coming to the County.”
There is a hope that with other hospitals in the region including Belleville, Trenton and Prince Edward County, there will be no significant risk of intermittent closures but there is the risk of reduced staff.
“What is important is that there are several days, both in August and in July, we would typically have two physicians staffed for the afternoons and evenings that we won’t have capacity for,” Dr. MacPherson said discussing the Belleville General Hospital staffing capacity.
Stacey Daub says that work is being done to come up with new ideas to help ease the strain on the system.
“I really feel pretty strongly that we’re going to have to partner to find new solutions and sustainable solutions and that’s exactly what our team has been doing,” Daub said.
“Never have we had stronger partnerships to advance new and different solutions. But they’re not going to have immediate returns.”
