The situation in Nova Scotia hospitals is getting worse by the day, according to the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union.
Earlier this week, the province said elective and same-day medical procedures are being “put on hold” through at least the end of next week in Nova Scotia’s Central and Northern zones, as hospitals deal with higher than normal emergency visits and demand for hospital beds.
Nova Scotia Health said “many” procedures will be affected, although cancer and other time-sensitive surgeries will continue.
In an email Thursday, Nova Scotia Health spokesperson Carla Adams said 180 non-urgent surgeries have been cancelled so far in the Central Zone and 45 have been cancelled in the Northern Zone.
That’s just one side effect of a chronic shortage of nurses and other health-care professionals, said NSNU president Janet Hazelton.
“I think it’s pretty critical now. We have a backlog in our emergency departments, we have ambulances waiting to offload their patients,” she said in an interview.
“They can’t just leave them, so they have to wait with them until someone’s able to assume that care, and that’s happening in most (emergency rooms) all across this province.”
Compounding the issue is that a number of ERs in the province are closed due to a lack of nursing staff.
“Therefore, those patients that normally would have went there are diverted to other ones that are already in a backlog,” said Hazelton.
“So it’s really made the whole situation a whole lot more difficult recently.”
1,300+ vacancies
Hazelton said there are many nursing positions that need to be filled. There are around 1,100 vacancies for registered nurses, 250 for licensed practical nurses and 23 to 25 for nurse practitioners.
“That’s a lot of vacancies in a system our size,” she said. “We’re not big enough to be able to absorb those kinds of vacancies.”
Those that are left are getting burnt out, especially during the pandemic. Long shifts are very common and vacations and days off are few and far between.
Elective surgeries “are not being cancelled so nurses can get vacations,” Hazelton said. “They’re being cancelled because we can’t keep up.
“To be fair, we support that decision to cancel elective surgeries. We believe that if you can’t do it safely, you can’t do it at all.”
With staff stretched so thin, nurses are in more danger of getting injured on the job, said Hazelton.
“It’s very critical in Nova Scotia and across this country. … and nurses are saying, ‘I’ve had enough,’” she said.
“We’ve been saying this for years, and now it’s worse than ever, but we’ve had enough. We can’t take it anymore.”
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions and nurses’ unions across the country, including the NSNU, have organized a day of action on Sept. 17 to call attention to the nursing crisis across Canada.
Speak Up for Health Care tour
The province’s recently-elected Progressive Conservative government is ready to “hit the ground running” to find solutions, according to Health Minister Michelle Thompson.
In an interview with Global News Thursday, Thompson said she and Premier Tim Houston will lead teams of health-care leaders in a cross-province “Speak Up for Health Care” tour, where they’ll speak with health-care workers in all health zones to hear about what issues they’re facing and which solutions they’d like to see.
She said health-care workers who meet with them won’t face any repercussions for speaking up about their challenges.
“It’s really important that people feel that they‘re able to speak freely about what their experiences are and how we can try and move the system forward,” said Thompson, who has worked as a registered nurse for 29 years.
“There are things in the system that need to change, and who better to tell us what those are than the people who are working right in the trenches at the front line?”
Hazelton said so far, she’s encouraged by the changes the new government has made.
She said she’s pleased the province has created new offices for recruitment, long-term care, and mental health and addictions. She’s also glad to hear that they will be hearing suggestions from those working on the front line.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of young men and women — not just in nursing, but in health care — that have all kinds of ideas,” said Hazelton.
“We need to be creative to find solutions to this.”
— with files from Jesse Thomas