A consultant report for Lakeridge Health calls the situation at the Oshawa hospital a “crisis” as it describes how a 55% vacancy rate is one of many factors contributing to long wait times for patients. “The Emergency Department is in crisis, struggling with performance, staffing, low morale, misaligned incentives and EMS discharges,” the report states. “These challenges are interconnected and compounded, and in part caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting labor shortages,” he says. Lakeridge Emergency Director Dr. Michael Howlett agreed that what’s happening is a “crisis” — a reason he said the hospital network sought outside help. “Because it’s such a crisis, we have to find our solutions very quickly,” Dr Howlett said. “Normally we’d try internally to work on solutions and try to improve our efficiency, but realistically the government isn’t coming in with a stallion to fix everything for us, so internally we have to get better at what we do to maintain our service level .” He said the hospital is not alone in feeling the shortage of nurses who, due to stress and overwork, are choosing to retire or leave at a faster rate than they can be hired or trained. “Covid-19 has made it more obvious, but it is not the cause. It is the tip of a very large iceberg and this fall we are seeing an increased number of children with viral illnesses. This will put more stress on our system and we are not really prepared,” he said. The report is from Dr. Chris Flanders of US-based X32 Healthcare based on a site visit on 26 September. He says the hospital’s goal between arriving and seeing a doctor is 30 minutes, but they’re seeing 125 minutes on average — more than four times longer. “This is a deteriorating situation, and it appears in Lakeridge to be rapidly deteriorating,” said Mike Hurley, regional vice-president of the Canadian University of Public Employees, which represents some hospital workers. “It is extremely worrying that there are a majority of vacancies. More vacancies for nurses than there are for nurses,” she said. On Monday, Lakeridge’s Oshawa location reported a wait time of one hour. The wait time for other hospitals in the Lakeridge network was much higher: five hours at Ajax-Pickering and Port Perry. Ontario unions have claimed tens of thousands of workers need to be hired to address system-wide shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, more nurses are leaving, retiring or going south of the border. Staff shortages are one reason why some emergency wards and rooms have been temporarily closed. “Lakeridge is bad. Really bad,” said Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. “But this is indicative of what is happening in major hospitals across Ontario. We’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really serious,” he said. The Ontario government has said it plans to hire 6,000 workers, provide incentives to stay and train nurses with international expertise.
