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ER staff say recruit more doctors, nurses or risk worse conditions

Resuscitating trauma patients on the floor of emergency rooms and examining sick people on stretchers instead of beds has become an increasingly tough reality for staff, says the head of a group that represents ER physicians across the country. Dr. Michael Howlett of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) said overcrowding in emergency departments has worsened as patients who fear going to hospital during the pandemic are now sicker and many more people no longer have family doctors. “Seeing patients in hallways, on floors for resuscitation, is a real crisis in health care in a first-world country,” said Howlett,…
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Minden ER to close in 1 week, but residents say fight for ‘safe and accessible’ health care not over

An emergency department in Minden, Ont., is slated to close in one week but residents say they will keep up the pressure on the province to make sure the closure is not permanent. “We are not statistics,” Richard Bradley, a resident, told CBC Toronto on Thursday. “We are determined. The only statistic we want to be is the town that saves its ER. We pay the same taxes as everybody else does. We deserve and demand that we have safe and accessible health care.” Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) announced in April that it would close the emergency department at…
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Alberta NDP raises concerns about lack of funding for rural health care

By Staff The Canadian Press Posted May 15, 2023 1:34 pm Updated May 15, 2023 7:45 pm Descrease article font size Increase article font size Alberta’s NDP says the only hospital in a town south of Calgary faces potential closures in its emergency department because the United Conservative Party has not supported it. David Shepherd, an NDP candidate in Edmonton who’s the Opposition health critic, held a news conference in front of the hospital in High River, Alta., a town of more than 14,000 people about 65 kilometers south of Calgary. He pointed to a recent letter to the local…