As the Chesley emergency department heads for another weekend of closures, the South Bruce Grey Health Centre says they’re exploring all options of how to cope with shortages of nurses in the short-term.
The healthcare system is struggling all across Ontario, and while there’s government programs incentivizing enrolment in nursing schools, there’s no quick fixes available.
President and CEO Michael Barrett says the health centre is weighing all their options in the short-term, including restructuring how the 11 emergency departments across the Grey Bruce area function.
“Is there a way to actually change the system so that we have some emergency departments becoming something different like an urgent care centre that’s not open at night, but then we beef up surrounding EDs with additional physician and nursing resources,” he says. “It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a negative for the community, it actually could be a good thing because right now we have a physician and a nurse seeing a very low volume of patients. If we restructure the system, we could have those same resources seeing 40 patients a day at a busy clinic.”
To see what healthcare options are available near you, check sbghc.on.ca
