Hospital expecting busy summer in ER

North Bay General Hospital
News Release

********************

The North Bay General Hospital is advising the community that patients may notice an increase in the length of time they wait to see a physician in the Emergency Room (ER) this summer.

The North Bay General Hospital’s Emergency Room has been understaffed for years, explains Nancy Jacko, Vice President, Medicine Care Centre. “We have been deemed as ‘under serviced’ for the number of patients we see in comparison to the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) physicians we have for the ER. We should have 10 FTE’s and we’ve been working with 6.5,” Jacko stated.

The hospital and Emergency Physicians have been working tirelessly to avoid any temporary closures of the ER. “We were able to prevent any closures in May or June by only having one physician on, instead of two, during our peak times between 2-8 pm,” Dr. Jim Stewart, Emergency and Family physician says. “Patients have noticed an increase in wait times during those periods,” Dr. Stewart continued.
The issue at the root of the problem is understaffing due to a lack of physicians comfortable working in this busy Emergency Dept. “The physician group and hospital have been doing everything in their power to try and recruit more physicians to our area. That’s the answer to the problem—more doctors”, Dr. Stewart said.

The hospital and physician representatives have been working very closely with healthcare partners including the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Health Force Ontario (HFO) —a provincial system for providing temporary help in crisis situations, and local physicians to avert service disruptions in the local Emergency Department.

“Our collective number one priority is patient safety, and ensuring we are able to provide the best possible care to patients in an acceptable time frame,” Nancy Jacko said.
Last year, the NBGH saw 46,095 visits to the Emergency Department.

********************