Doctor sounds the alarm on the state of Nova Scotia's emergency rooms

Doctor Scott Bowen at the Cumberland Regional Hospital in Amherst, N.S is said he is alarmed by the state of Nova Scotia’s emergency rooms.

Doctor Scott Bowen oversees internal medicine and the ICU at the Cumberland Regional Hospital in Amherst, N.S. He is sounding the alarm on the state of Nova Scotia’s emergency rooms.

“Things are bad. The hospital’s overcrowded, way over capacity,” Bowen said. “On holiday Monday we hit 100, over 140 per cent occupancy.”

Bowen said burnout among nurses is as bad as it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said they are afraid that they won’t be able to give the quality of care that patients need.

“There are those that haven’t, are afraid to come back to work,” Bowen said. “It’s incredibly difficult to witness.”

In a statement, Nova Scotia Health said it has worked incredibly hard over the past several months to tackle overcrowding and staffing challenges at Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre. The statement said changes will take time and they will continue to use travel nurses and agency staff as needed.

“We know this isn’t a permanent solution, but one that is currently necessary while we work on reaching our goal of bolstering our complement of permanent staff,” the statement said.

Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin is the MLA for Cumberland North and a former nurse herself. She thinks travel nurses should be reinstated to help with overcrowding.