Many N.S. ERs, hospitals reach or surpass inpatient capacity

Nikki D’Eon says her 68-year-old mother has a strong will, but even it was tested after being taken to the QEII emergency department in Halifax by ambulance last Saturday.

“She was seen rather quickly, however, there were no beds,” says D’Eon.

As a result, Beverly Burke, who is battling a form of cancer, spent five days in a small room, equipped with a bed but no bathroom next to the nurses’ station in emergency, where D’Eon says visiting family members saw hallways lined with stretchers and people sleeping in waiting room chairs.

“The nurses were very attentive to everything that she needed, however, someone with multiple myeloma, in so much pain, that these heavy pain medications aren’t helping.... this person needs a bed,” says D’Eon. “It’s frustrating when someone you love is in pain.”

D'Eon says after those five days, her mother was finally seen by the cancer clinic, given more medication and a plan for more chemotherapy, and went home.

The lack of beds to admit patients is just one of the problems facing the health-care system, according to the president of the NSGEU, which represents 18,000 Nova Scotia health-care workers, including nurses at the Halifax Infirmary (HI).

“Numbers at the HI are over the top, staff are beyond stressed,” says Sandra Mullen. “New workers are coming in, they are seeing conditions that are beyond terrible. Our staff, who have been through so much in the past number of months and years, are so stressed… and they are working beside travel nurses who are paid twice as much as they are, which is very difficult to deal with.”

“It’s an incredible situation right now,” Mullen adds.

She says the pressures faced by staff after the reason the union put out a notice to its members in support of mask wearing at indoor places.

“To see the rates of admission and the number of cases so high, it's absolutely a ‘must-do’ right now,” she says.

The Minister in charge of the Department of Health and Wellness, Michelle Thompson, declined CTV’s request for an interview about how emergency departments are faring throughout the province.

But in a statement, spokesperson Khalehla Perrault writes, “We are aware of the pressure our healthcare system is experiencing inside and out, and the impact it has on patients and healthcare workers. This is a particularly difficult time with a number of factors contributing to increased occupancy at our hospitals such as labour shortages, bed availability, and increased cases of respiratory illnesses.”

“…We want to assure all Nova Scotians that the Department of Health and Wellness in collaboration with the IWK and Nova Scotia Health is actively working on ways to address staffing shortages and relieve pressures on emergency departments.”

Meanwhile, provincial reporting online shows hospitals with the highest daily number of ER visits as on Thursday include: the QEII with 203 visits, the Cobequid Community Health Centre with 147, the IWK with 145 visits, and the Cape Breton Regional hospital with 127 visits.

When it comes to acute care bed capacity, the same online report shows seventeen hospitals of 36 were at or above 100 percent as of Thursday, with Fisherman's Memorial in Lunenburg ranking highest at 183 percent.

“The numbers are really quite unprecedented in the last several weeks,” says the president of Doctors Nova Scotia.

Dr. Leisha Hawker says the current early peak in respiratory viruses among both children and adults is putting a strain on the system.

She’s urging residents to get up to date on flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to help relieve the situation, and she says Nova Scotians should think about how they plan to spend the holiday season.

“Everyone's been really keen to get back out there, but I think we're at the point now where the health-care system's really struggling and we need to really strategically choose our social activities at this point,” says Hawker.