P.E.I. Opposition leery of ICU reopening plan, but minister confident of summer timeline

Access to health care dominated Wednesday's debate in the P.E.I. Legislature, with concerns raised over the reopening of the intensive-care unit at Summerside's hospital and ambulance wait times in rural areas. 

The ICU at Prince County Hospital has been operating as a scaled-back progressive-care unit for nearly two years. 

However, the province announced earlier this month that it would have enough internal medicine doctors at PCH to provide full critical care by July. 

Opposition health critic Gord McNeilly raised concerns in the legislature about whether there are enough nurses to keep the unit open. 

"You admitted yourself that we're facing a shortage of critical-care nurses in the province," McNeilly said in a question directed at P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane. 

"How are you planning to reopen the ICU at PCH this July when there's no indication you've actually solved the staffing crisis that forced it to close in the first place?" 

The eight-bed intensive-care unit at Prince County Hospital has been closed since May 2023 due to a lack of specialized staff. Since then, more serious intensive-care cases have been handled at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, 60 kilometres to the east.

PCH had been operating an eight-bed progressive-care unit until January 2024, when Health P.E.I. cut the number of beds to four because there weren't enough medical personnel to look after eight patients.

The decision spurred a town hall meeting in Summerside last year that saw hundreds of residents turn out to express their frustration to provincial health officials.

After question period Wednesday, McLane said he's confident the hospital will have the staff it needs to reopen the full eight-bed ICU by July. There are four internal medicine specialists now on staff at PCH, and two more will be joining the team this summer. 

"We always rely on our unit to understand safety and requirements, and there may be some vacation challenges at that time of year, but summer is a realistic timeframe," he insisted.  

The health minister added that six Island nurses have already upgraded their skills to allow them to work in critical care, while five more are in training. 

But to fill the gaps in the meantime, McLane said the ICU will still have to rely on travel nurses, who work for an independent agency and are hired on an as-needed basis, usually at higher wages than a province's own nurses. 

There was also discussion Wednesday about people waiting hours for ambulance services in some rural areas of the province.