Newfoundland hospitals grapple with patients admitted because they have nowhere to go

Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador have begun tracking the number of patients admitted to emergency rooms because they have nowhere else to go.

The woman in the corner of the emergency room still haunts Dr. Gerard Farrell, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association. Obviously suffering from dementia, she was impossible to miss as he passed back and forth, always sitting in the same chair in an environment not built to care for her.

"She wasn't there because she needed emergency care. She was there because she needed more care than she could get in the home," Farrell said in an interview. "But there was no place else for her to go."

The woman is the example he provides when asked about his recent experiences with patients that the provincial health authority calls "community emergencies" -- patients brought to an emergency department and admitted, despite not meeting the criteria for admission.

"The issue is serious and significant," Farrell said, adding that community emergencies are an example of how emergency rooms are bearing the brunt of health-care staffing shortages.

Documents show Newfoundland and Labrador health officials began tracking these patients in April 2022 after their numbers increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as the Omicron variant began spreading through the population in late 2021.

"Families and personal care home facilities are often unable to cope with care demands," reads a briefing note from January 2022, obtained by The Canadian Press through access to information legislation. "Patients are frequently sent from personal care home facilities who identify the patient as an increased level of care, deemed unmanageable at that facility."

These admissions reduced emergency room capacities by up to 30 per cent on any given day, as the patients waited for "emergency community supports" or other services, the note said. Some waited for weeks.