the margaret cochenour memorial hospital in red lake, ontario closed its er for 24 hours last saturday, a recent example of a
canada-wide crisis
of how burnout and
covid-19
illness is exacerbating pre-existing health care worker shortages.
for dr. sarah newbery, a family physician in the community of marathon and the assistant dean physician of workforce strategy for the northern ontario school of medicine, the issue is complex.
number of physicians in the north “worrisome”
physician shortages were already a concern in northern ontario before the pandemic — but covid pushed hospital teams to the brink: physicians already tasked with a significant workload were also managing covid screening centres and vaccination clinics. plus, travel and quarantine restrictions made it difficult for visiting specialists and medical students who would usually provide additional support to rotate through the hospitals. and for some, especially physicians over the age of 65 or those who were immunocompromised, the risk of staying on through the pandemic was too great.
“in december of 2020, we needed 86 [physicians] across northern ontario. last june, that was up to 97. now, as last count in december of 2021, we needed 103,” says newbery. “so the shift, and the decline, in the number of family physicians, living in and working in rural communities across the north has been quite worrisome over the last two years in particular.”
northern ontario isn’t the only place feeling the strain. from march 25 to 27, the emergency department at the sussex health centre in new brunswick had to close each night due to a shortage of nurses. when the decision was made, more than 100 health-care workers throughout zone 2, the administration region that includes sussex, were isolating due to exposure to covid-19,
according to
the cbc.