Delays and staffing shortages continue to plague N.S. health-care system

Dr. Kirk Magee has been on the job for more than 22 years. He says overcrowding in Nova Scotia hospitals has now reached historic levels.

"I can say unequivocally I have never seen it this bad before," said Magee who is the chief of the Central Zone emergency departments.

The Omicron variant has stretched an already fragile system to the very limit.

"We see patients that are admitted, that should be on hospital floors, waiting not just hours but even days," said Magee.

Ambulances are lined up for hours outside of Nova Scotia hospitals, ICU and acute occupancy rates are hovering around 100 per cent capacity, and there was a 2,100-patient increase in visits to Nova Scotia ERs last month compared to the previous December.

Magee said doctors, nurses, hospital staff and paramedics are exhausted and overworked.

"That means offload times for us to get our patients off a stretcher and into a bed in the emergency department takes longer," said Charbel Daniel who is the EHS Director of Provincial Operations. "So there is a longer turnaround time for that ambulance to be released."

Daniel said the Omicron variant has hit EHS hard.

"Out of the 1,200 paramedics, we have 50 that are currently isolating," said Daniel. "Whether they are close contacts or they have tested positive."

Kevin MacMullin, from the paramedics union, said a solution to the staff shortage would be to fast track the hiring of paramedic students to help expand the workforce.

"We need to get those people through quicker," said MacMullin. "We need them hired quickly; we need them in the field quicker and geared up with an experienced paramedic."

Even with overcrowding and long delays, Dr. Magee wants Nova Scotians to continue to seek medical care when needed, but do so knowing the wait times will be long.