Closure concerns
P.E.I. health official says he appreciates fears in West Prince when ER closes
There are no plans nor desire to close Alberton’s Western Hospital, insists Dr. André Celliers. Celliers, executive director of Medical Affairs and Legal Services for Health P.E.I., acknowledged hospital closure was among the concerns raised with him Wednesday evening and throughout the day on Thursday. In an interview this week with CBC, Celliers indicated Health P.E.I. had received no complaints about the recent emergency room closures at Western Hospital.
In an interview Thursday with the Journal Pioneer, Celliers stands by that position - that no formal complaints or expressions of concern had been received prior to Wednesday evening, but he admitted that situation quickly changed following the broadcast.
“I’m very appreciative of the concerns that people have. I know they are advocating for health care in their community. It’s really a good thing. I appreciate their concerns and I will respond to all of them specifically,” he told the Journal Pioneer. The hospital’s emergency department was closed from Dec 21 to 23, Dec. 25 to 26 and from Dec. 29 to Jan. 1, because of what Celliers refers to as a “perfect storm” where there was a combination of nursing and physician vacancies for a variety of health and personal reasons. Combining those vacancies with the Christmas vacation period, he said, “we just could not get those vacancies filled in the emergency department, so we had to close down.” Alberton Mayor David Gordon said he was hearing concerns prior to Wednesday and had personal knowledge of the worries the closure was causing. He said his daughter took her son to the emergency room at Prince County Hospital in Summerside Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and left there at 3 p.m. without having seen a physician. He said he would like to let Celliers know residents are worried and he said he will be scheduling a town council discussion on the matter during their January meeting.
Celliers said he does not anticipate any closures in the foreseeable future, and Mayor Gordon said that will likely be the case, suggesting the provincial Liberals will want to get through an election before the situation is repeated.
Norway, P.E.I. resident Mary McGrath said people were complaining but nobody was listening. She related a story about an individual from West Prince who went to the emergency room in Summerside and was allegedly made to feel unwelcome because of the demand that already existed there.
“(But) you don’t sit in (the emergency room) for five hours for nothing,” she said.
Family members of an Alberton resident who received emergency medical care at Western Hospital on the evening of Dec. 28, the night before the most recent closure, posted on Facebook that they would be sharing with Celliers how important it is to have emergency care available in Alberton.
Kendra O’Brien said her father had gone into cardiac arrest at Western Hospital.
“We were very fortunate to have had the hospital (Collaborative Emergency Care) with nurse and paramedic open to defibrillate him. It saved his life! The residents of West Prince need this service and for one believe we heed to speak up and be heard,” she posted.
She was not available for a follow-up interview.
“There’s no doubt, if we had any choice, we would not have closed the emergency department,” Celliers emphasized; “we would never do it easily.”
He insisted, though, the closure was instituted for the safety of the people of West Prince, “Because, if you do not have qualified people who are trained in emergency care, it is not safe to have those services open.”
Celliers said two doctors have been recruited for West Prince, one who will be arriving in O’Leary as soon as he clears the immigration process, and one to arrive in Alberton by summer. Health P.E.I., he said, has also received formal notification of two upcoming retirements and he said recruitment efforts are underway to find replacements. He said there are also recruitment efforts underway for nursing positions. The hospital spokesman suggested fear of hospital closure is not unusual in small rural communities, but he insisted, “We have no interest in closing down Western Hospital. It is the keystone of the community, keystone of healthcare in West Prince.”