Health PEI planning to restore Prince County Hospital ICU, doctors told

Health P.E.I. leadership has told the East Prince Medical Staff Association the plan is to get "a fully functional" intensive care unit back at Prince County Hospital, says Dr. Steven MacNeill.

"That's an absolute necessity. There can be no other ultimate goal," said MacNeill, who is a member of the East Prince Medical Staff Association.

The group made a presentation at a legislative standing committee meeting in Summerside on Wednesday night.

Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker was looking for information about discussions between the association and Health P.E.I. officials about the future of the Prince County Hospital.

In discussing those meetings McNeill, who has worked at the Prince County Hospital as an emergency room physician since 2002, said there are several challenges to overcome.

"We feel the current staffing shortages at PCH have reached a point that make them almost insurmountable to recover from, and if allowed to continue and worsen will affect our ability to maintain acute care at that hospital," MacNeill said.

"This physician staffing crisis is felt most in the departments of internal medicine, family medicine, anesthesia and general surgery ... We're also desperately short for critical care nurses and respiratory therapists. As a result our ICU is now a limited progressive care unit."

He added chronic short staffing issues are affecting hospitals across the country.

In January, Health P.E.I. cited staff shortages as the reason behind reducing the number of patients who could be cared for at Prince County Hospital's progressive care unit, cutting the number of beds from eight to four.

If Summerside has more than four patients needing critical care at any one time, they must be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown.

"The QEH has limited capacity to accept these critically-ill patients and so more and more will be laid in the Prince County Hospital emergency department for long periods awaiting an available ICU bed. These delays increase risk to every patient in the emergency department," MacNeill said.

The progressive-care unit was what remained after the hospital lost its intensive-care unit in mid-2023, with Health P.E.I. saying it didn't have enough medical specialists to staff an ICU there.

The East Prince Medical Staff Association declared an emergency at Prince County Hospital in an open letter signed by 42 doctors last month.

"The aim of this letter, and our ongoing advocacy efforts, is to encourage urgent action and collaboration from our leaders, support our colleagues across professions and prevent the further loss of physicians and staff," said Dr. Daniel Albrechtson, who also presented on behalf of the association.