'We were caught off guard': Sackville, N.B. hospital closes emergency room on weekends
Emergency room services will once again be reduced in Sackville, N.B., taking many in the community by surprise.
The health authority announced the Sackville Memorial Hospital will shut down its emergency department overnight on weekends as a temporary solution to its staffing concerns.
Newly elected Sackville Mayor Shawn Mesheau says he was unaware of the decision.
"First of all, we were caught off guard," says Mesheau.
According to executive director Nancy Parker, starting Friday, the emergency room will temporarily close each Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. and resume regular daytime services at 8 a.m.
During that time, anyone seeking medical attention will be directed to a different hospital, with the closest being 40 minutes away in Moncton.
The closure is due to staffing shortages. There are nine full-time registered nurse positions available on the unit and currently, only six are filled.
"As we enter the summer, it certainly brings new challenges to us. We have to balance our responsibilities to provide health care, with the need to provide staff with a reasonable amount of vacation time," says Geri Geldart, vice president of clinical at Horizon Health Network
The decision comes more than a year after Premier Blaine Higgs announced six emergency departments across the province would be closed overnight. He ultimately scrapped the decision a week later.
“We cannot keep an ER open if we do not have a safe number of staff members to provide the care there. It is dangerous, not just for the patients, but it is dangerous for the staff," says Health Minister Dorothy Shephard.
New Brunswick Green party leader David Coon says he's "extremely disappointed" that the province has gone back on its promise, and "the minister of health didn't find a way to ensure those ERs would be able to operate."
But for Mesheau, it's not that simple.
"We have to take politics out of healthcare. This isn’t about politics and broken promises, this is about the health of the people in our community," says Mesheau.
Shepard says it's possible other rural communities will see their emergency room services cut short as well.
There has been no date set for when the Sackville closures may come to an end. Horizon Health says it will depend on the success of recruitment to the area.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Trudeau promises $1B in loans for child-care providers to expand care centres
The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child-care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will be extending further student loan forgiveness and training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
Spring allergy season has begun. Where is it worse in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
'Nonsense:' Doug Ford slams lawsuits filed by Ontario school boards against social media platforms
Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against a trio of social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
N.B. man wins $64 million from Lotto 6/49
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
Multiple bridges in Calgary shut down for police incident
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unravelled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency.
A dog and a bird formed an unlikely friendship. Their separation has infuriated followers
Peggy is a stout and muscular Staffordshire bull terrier, and Molly is a magpie, an Australian bird best known for swooping on humans during breeding season, not for befriending dogs. But in an emotional video posted online, Peggy’s owners announced that the animals had been separated.