QEH emergency department a pinch point of overcrowded system, says COO
CBC
A crowded emergency department at Charlottetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a symptom of changes that need to be made across the province's health system, says Health P.E.I. COO Corrine Rowswell.
Letters tabled in the legislature Thursday include a plea from a nurse about how all but one of the treatment rooms in the emergency are full of patients who need to be in hospital but have nowhere else to go. A letter from the medical director of the QEH called the situation "dangerous."
Speaking on Island Morning Friday, Rowswell did not play down the problem.
"The letter … really does highlight the severity of the situation that our health system is facing," she said.
Rowswell described the problem as being system-wide. A shortage of primary-care doctors, and the resulting more than 20,000 Islanders waiting for a family physician, and a shortage of places for patients to go when they no longer need full hospital care, are both having an impact on the emergency department.
"This is very much related to building home care, insuring that our primary care has the capacity to see patients so that they're not going to the emergency department," she said.
"We are definitely in an investment and building phase at Health P.E.I."
Earlier this week Health Minister Ernie Hudson confirmed the province has 42 long-term care beds that are closed due to lack of staff, and there are further beds closed in the private sector.
The beds are closed because staff have been moved to pandemic-related activities. Rowswell is hopeful as those requirements ease, the situation in the emergency department will improve.