Doctors warn of summer ER crunch in Canada: ‘A lot of waiting by patients’

Last summer, a number of hospital ERs across the country had to temporarily close their doors due to staffing challenges. Doctors warn of another crunch this year.

Amidst a perfect storm of staffing shortages, escalating burnout rates and upcoming summer vacation time, Canada’s health-care system is grappling with a mounting crisis that may lead to longer patient wait times and more emergency room closures, experts warn.

On Wednesday, Niagara Health said its urgent care centres in southern Ontario will no longer operate overnight as it faces physician staff shortages. And on Thursday, the hospital in Minden, Ont., permanently close the local ER, due to a strain in staffing.

Last week, 180 ER doctors across Calgary penned an open letter sounding the alarm over the state of emergency care in that city.

While staffing challenges extend far beyond Ontario and Calgary, the impact is most acutely felt in rural areas where the influx of cottage-goers and camp enthusiasts intensifies the strain on already stretched resources, warned Dr. Raghu Venugopal, an emergency room physician in Toronto.

“Summer is a high-volume time. In the medical profession, we really just keep on working because the patients keep coming. Emergency rooms have to be staffed,” Venugopal told Global News.

“And the kind of accidents that happen in rural communities can be significant … serious highway injuries, agricultural industry industries. These are very serious injuries that need timely care,” he said.

Last summer, a number of hospital emergency rooms across the country had to temporarily close their doors due to staffing challenges.

In July 2022, six emergency rooms including one in Montreal were temporarily shut in Quebec; at least three were closed in New Brunswick; 14 hospitals in Ontario closed ERs, beds and ICU units; and a third of rural Manitoba ERs closed due to staffing shortages.