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17 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,A ugust 11,2022 insidehalton.com 1276 Cornwall Road, Unit C, Oakville Ontario, L6J 7W5 T: 905-845-0767 • F: 905-845-5552 •www.haxelllaw.com • lawyers@haxelllaw.com Personal Professional Service at Competitive Rates Buying? Selling? Re Call us for a quote at 905-845-0767 ext. 223Jameson Glas 905-845-0767 ext. 223Jameson Glas GOLD WINNER 2021 ✓ Patient Counselling ✓ Complete Diabetic Care ✓ Home Visits ✓ Consultations ✓ Free RX Delivery ✓ Free Nutrition Counselling ✓ Vaccinations ✓ Cholesterol, A1C, AFib and DNA Screening DE RANGO PHARMACY INC. Always Here to Help You! PLATINUM WINNER 2021 478 Dundas Street West 905-257-9737 2501 Third Line 905-465-3000 Pharmacist - Fabio De Rango Drug Store/Pharmacy www.shoppersdrugmart.ca NOW OPEN 24 HRS EVERY DAY unable to provide an aver- age wait time for their emer- gency departments and monitors within the waiting rooms that normally tell people how long it will be be- fore they can see a doctor are no longer providing this information. "Patients are prioritized based on their needs when they arrive," said Cindy McDonell, senior vice pres- ident of clinical operations, Halton Healthcare. "This means the sickest people will be seen first and those with less serious medical concerns may wait longer." McDonell noted Halton Healthcare emergency de- partments have experi- enced "unprecedented" staffing and patient vol- ume pressures. On the staffing side, Sharon Norris, Halton Healthcare's vice president of human resources, noted that while Halton Health- care continues to attract and recruit staff, there is a limited number of experi- enced health-care workers available to recruit across Ontario and Canada. McDonell said CO- VID-19 continues to play a significant role in the staff- ing shortage. "The rate of COVID-19 related hospital staff ab- sences is similar to the lev- el of illness that is being seen in our communities and impacting other busi- nesses and services beyond health care," said McDo- nell. "This number also fluc- tuates on a daily basis. As of July 22, there were 84 staff across all three hospi- tals unable to work due to COVID illness or isolation requirements. Absences for COVID-19 in hospital staff results in an extended isolation period and the need to stay home -- for safety and to prevent fur- ther infections within the hospital -- and contribute to the staffing challenges." Joan Jickling, Halton Healthcare senior vice president of patient en- gagement and chief nurs- ing executive, said another major problem is that the three emergency depart- ments have seen an in- crease in the number of sicker patients who re- quire longer stays in the emergency department for diagnosis and treatment. From April 1 to June 30, Jickling said Halton Healthcare's emergency departments saw a 21 per cent rise in these higher acuity patients, including: an 11 per cent increase at Oakville Trafalgar Memo- rial Hospital, a 35 per cent increase at Milton District Hospital and a 29 per cent increase at Georgetown Hospital compared to pre- pandemic volumes. "During the same peri- od, the number of patients in the emergency depart- ment who have been admit- ted and are waiting for an in-patient bed has also in- creased from a daily aver- age of 19 per day pre-pan- demic to a daily average of 42 per day across the three emergency departments," said Jickling. What higher patient numbers and lower staff- ing numbers means for On- tario's hospitals can be seen in the story of Idalina Lima Matias who respond- ed online to Halton Health- care's Facebook post. "Two weeks ago, I ended up in the ER on a Thursday afternoon and the waiting room was packed. There was one lovely patient nurse taking blood for all those pa- tients, working swiftly, effi- ciently and patient with her patients," wrote Matias. "My heart went out to her as her plate was full -- I would be surprised if she had time to go to the bath- room. Unfortunately, we were there for 11 hours -- not due to the staff but the lack of staff. Our health- care system needs help." When it comes to fixing the problem Jickling noted this is a highly complex provincial and national is- sue that will require a sys- tem response. In the meantime, she said Halton Healthcare is doing all it can to find more staff, including leveraging programs to integrate in- ternationally educated nurses as well as novice and pre-licensure practi- tioners (nursing students and students from other health disciplines) through Ministry of Health spon- sored initiatives. Jickling also noted en- hanced training for nurses is ongoing so they can work in specialty areas, includ- ing critical care, the oper- ating room and the emer- gency department. "To address patient ca- pacity pressures, we have implemented an innova- tive remote monitoring program. This program supports the early dis- charge of patients home where they are provided with Bluetooth enabled, physiological monitoring devices connected to a vir- tual care team who moni- tors and supports them through their recovery," said Jickling. "This has been an im- portant strategy to serve patients recovering from COVID as well as patients with chronic medical con- ditions such as congestive heart failure, chronic ob- structive pulmonary dis- ease and other respiratory illnesses." McDonell said that while Halton Healthcare's emergency departments are busy, as of Aug. 2, it has not been necessary to close any of them completely. That said, she pointed out people with less serious health concerns should consider all of the health- care options available in the community. This might include call- ing a family doctor, talking to a pharmacist or going to an urgent care centre or walk-in clinic. "Telehealth Ontario is also an option where peo- ple can speak to a regis- tered nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said McDonell. When asked what the province is doing to relieve the pressure in Ontario's emergency departments, Oakville MPP Stephen Crawford said the province has built unprecedented hospital capacity since the start of the pandemic, in- cluding a $5.1-billion in- vestment to build 3,500 beds across the province. He also said the prov- ince is offering cash incen- tives to nurses, recruited and trained more than 5,000 nurses and registered practical nurses and 8,000 personal support workers and will add hundreds of medical school positions over the next five years. "We will continue to work with the health-care sector to ensure Ontarians can continue to count on the care they need and de- serve," said Crawford. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With local hospi- tals reporting their emer- gency departments are under extreme pressure, we wanted to talk to local health-care officials to determine exactly what that means and how the problem is being dealt with. NEWS Continued from page 1 PRESSURES UNPRECEDENTED, SAYS HALTON HEALTHCARE VP Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital's emergency department has been under severe strain as of late. Halton Healthcare photo