Hamilton hospitals wrestle with national nursing shortage and other short-staffing
CBC
Hamilton hospitals say they have a "massive" demand for nurses, a pool of workers who are exhausted after being on the front-line for four waves of COVID-19.
"Our schools and training centres have not been able to graduate the number of students we're used to receiving and there is significant demand … and on top of this we have our regular attrition," Sharon Pierson, Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) chief operating officer and executive vice-president of clinical operations, said during an Aug. 19 staff town hall.
HHS spokesperson Wendy Stewart told CBC Hamilton in an email, other shortages include respiratory therapists, specialized medical radiation technologists, pharmacy technicians and others.
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton also acknowledged via email it is dealing with a staffing shortage, especially when it comes to nursing.
It's unclear just how severe the shortage is, but it's not just happening in Hamilton.
Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) president Tim Guest said in an email the shortages in critical care were already major before the pandemic, with many health-care facilities — especially in rural areas — depending on agency nursing to operate a third of its workforce.
Long-term care operators were also struggling to find nurses and the CNA was seeing more vacancies on medical surgical units and mental health units, with health-care facilities filling those gaps through overtime work.
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