.JPG;w=960)
The North Bay Regional Health Centre acknowledges it is not immune to the widespread health care staffing shortage in Ontario.
"NBRHC is experiencing staffing pressures similar to other Ontario hospitals," says Kimberley McElroy, NBRHC's director of communications.
CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions held a media event, Tuesday, citing "problems with spiking emergency room wait times and unprecedented staffing shortages will deepen as the population ages." OCHU/CUPE is calling for NBRHC to make 300 new hospital staff hires.
"We are feeling the strain, however, we are fortunate that we haven’t had to close our emergency department or cancel any services," McElroy says.
See related: Health minister appoints chief nursing officer to address health crisis
This summer, there were more than 80 hospital ER and unit closures province-wide. To keep hospital emergency rooms and other units from closing across Ontario, 46,000 more hospital staff must be hired just to deal with a 14.95 per cent hospital staff turnover rate and the high number of hospital job vacancies, says OCHU/CUPE.
See: 'A nurse can't be everywhere': Health care staff shortages prompt Ontario ER closures
In July, BayToday asked NBRHC officials whether the hospital was in danger of having to close its emergency department but was advised such an outcome was not anticipated. Dr. Alexis Lemmex said then some shifts occasionally do go unfilled but there is always a physician available to see patients around the clock.
"We currently have 164 vacancies and half of these are RNs or RPNs," McElroy adds, in response to BayToday's request for comment on the figures from OCHU/CUPE. "We are working on some innovative recruitment solutions to continue to provide the best care to the people we serve."
A workforce retention plan to stabilize capacity in public hospitals is needed says Dave Verch, a registered practical nurse and first vice-president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
See also: Health care labour shortage a long time coming, requires shift to team-based care
"That would require the improvement of working conditions to stop the bleeding of staff. This includes increasing wages, full-time employment and lowering workloads. Then, the number of resignations would go down and hospitals would not have to recruit so many new staff to deal with the unprecedented turnover rates and increased needs of an ageing and growing population."
See: Wage cap law does not infringe Charter rights, Ontario says in Bill 124 case
Some key factors to alleviate staffing pressure include training more physicians, attracting students to medical school, and making sure those future physicians have the mentors necessary for growth Dr. Lemmex observed in that July interview. Human resources will play a large factor, she said. In North Bay, specifically, generalists are needed who can run a family practice and take shifts in the emergency department and a direct path to finding those doctors is to find and train people from our own community.
"That's why NOSM University is such a great medical school because they train people in the north and the people tend to stay in the north. The health care shortage does affect the north more than other areas."
On the nursing side, some relief is on the way, as the Canadian Press reports more than 13,000 applied to a university nursing program in 2022. That's up 8 per cent compared to 2021 and 25 per cent compared to 2018 and 2019 according to the Council of Ontario Universities. And, Colleges Ontario experienced a record number of applicants to nursing diploma programs this year, as 12,000 applied in 2022, up 14 per cent over 2021 and a 25 per cent rise from 2018.
