'Titanic' staffing crisis leaving at least 14 Ontario hospital units shut down ahead of long weekend
The intensive care unit at a hospital in Bowmanville will be temporarily closed amid a “significant staff shortage,” alongside more than a dozen other Ontario hospitals that are expecting to reduce beds and relocate care ahead of the long weekend.
An Ontario nursing union told CTV News Toronto at least 14 hospitals will be impacted.
“Long weekends always have an increased visit to emergency rooms, so there'll be further staffing issues, further burnout issues,” Ontario Nurses’ Association President Cathryn Hoy said on Thursday afternoon.
At the centre of the closures is a staffing crisis that Hoy said she can only compare to the “Titanic.”
“That's how serious it is,” she said. “I don't even know if there's words anymore for it.”
Hoy says that Bowmanville is a community that can’t afford to lose 12 intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
But in a statement, Lakeridge Health told CTV News Toronto that they had to make the “difficult decision” to temporarily close their ICU and relocate patients to Ajax Pickering and Oshawa hospitals.
“We recognize the impact of this temporary relocation on patients and their families. This decision was not made lightly,” Lakeridge spokesperson Sharon Navarro told CTV News Toronto.
Emergency rooms in Wingham and Listowel will also be closed for parts of the long weekend.
Hoy said these closures are the result of nurses leaving the profession in “droves.”
Birgit Umaigba, an Ontario emergency room nurse, said she has witnessed this with her own eyes. Just yesterday, the ICU she was scheduled to work at shutdown.
She said two more colleagues told her they were prepared to leave the profession, adding to the list of over a dozen she’s recently seen walk away from the profession to work at Boston Pizza and Costco, some with decades of experience.
The most recent Statistics Canada data illustrates the severity of the situation. Almost one in four nurses said they planned on changing or leaving their job in the next three years.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s minister of health said Sylvia Jones was unavailable for an interview and instead shared a statement.
“Like many other jurisdictions around the world, Ontario’s health system faces pressures due to the challenge of maintaining the required staffing levels."
While Hoy said it’s “too late” for a quick fix, she said repealing Bill 124, which caps a nurse’s salary increase at one per cent, is a start.
The bill was introduced by the Ford government in 2019 as a way to “ensure that increases in public sector compensation reflect the fiscal situation of the province,” the government said at the time.
But Hoy said repealing the bill is the only way to retain nurses and give them much needed hope.
"It'll be a sign of hope so that people will not continue to quit. That finally, finally they'll be recognized and that we're going to do something for them."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Spectacular aurora light show to be seen across Canada Friday night
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
Town of Fort Nelson, B.C., ordered to evacuate due to wildfire
The entire town of Fort Nelson, B.C., as well as the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has been ordered to evacuate due to an out-of-control wildfire.
Snowbirds in Vancouver for puck-drop flyby as Canucks face Oilers
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds will be performing a flyover across downtown Vancouver at the start of tonight's Stanley Cup playoff game between the Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers.
McGill University seeks emergency injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
Video shows naked raccoon catching B.C. family by surprise
When Marvin Henschel spotted a strange and hairless creature wandering through a front lawn in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, he could barely believe his eyes.
Barron Trump declines to serve as an RNC delegate
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, has declined to serve as a delegate at this summer’s Republican National Convention, according to a senior Trump campaign adviser and a statement from Melania Trump's office.
Out-of-control wildfire prompts evacuation alert for Fort McMurray, Saprae Creek Estates Friday night
An evacuation alert was issued for two Wood Buffalo communities Friday night, as crews battled an out-of-control wildfire near Fort McMurray.