Regina ERs ask doctors to work extra, bring in help from B.C.

Sitting in a packed ER waiting room at the Regina General Hospital, Robert Murray walked out when he heard only one doctor was working.

Murray recently went to the General Hospital’s ER because he was having pain following surgery a week earlier.

About 40 patients were in the ER waiting room in Regina the evening of Feb. 5. Murray was taken aback when a nurse announced that patients were welcome to stay if they required emergency services. But if they didn’t, she suggested patients consider going to a clinic or their doctor’s office the next day.

She told patients only one doctor was working in the ER, and the wait would be lengthy.

“She said, ‘This is going to be a long, long night,’ ” Murray said. He got up and went home. “I thought, ‘Forget it. I’m not dying. I’m just feeling extremely uncomfortable.’ ”

But five days later, Murray felt much worse. Shaking and confused, he was having difficulty focusing when his daughters took him to the ER. “I waited two hours before I got to see a doctor,” said the 65-year-old.

It turned out his kidneys and liver were shutting down because of an unusual, post-surgical complication. Following numerous tests, Murray was in hospital for five days before going home.

“I could have very easily died in that emergency room,” he said.

But after seeing a doctor, he said his care was top-notch.

“I’m not complaining about the medical service I got,” Murray said.

“I’m complaining about the speed with which we get it ... They’ve got to get more doctors to speed up this triage system.”

On Feb. 5, the ER was extremely short of physicians for a threehour stretch because of acute illness, said Dr. Terry Ross, department head of Emergency Medicine with the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR).

“The city had a significant gastroenteritis bug rolling through, and unfortunately four of my docs were down in that period,” Ross said.

That shift was eventually filled, but it took time. However, Ross noted the city’s two ERs have been short of physicians for some time. To be fully staffed, 31 fulltime equivalent emergency room physicians are required. “We’re currently running 6.5 full-time equivalents short,” Ross said.

Over time, physicians come and go. “We’ve just had another exodus of physicians leave for multiple reasons over the last six months,” Ross said.

Two moved to Ontario to be closer to family, one retired, one relocated to Victoria, one went to Africa to work with Doctors Without Borders while another returned to South Africa.

“People aren’t leaving because they don’t love the job,” Ross said.

“They genuinely do; it’s just that eventually families become big gravitational forces we can’t always overcome.”

To deal with the shortage, ER doctors agreed to take on extra work. Additionally, Ross asked two physicians from Comox, B.C., who formerly practised in Regina’s emergency departments and intensive care units, to provide some ER coverage.

The doctors have maintained their Saskatchewan licences and privileges in the RQHR and have been flying to Regina about once a month. They agreed to work a minimum of five ER shifts over a six- or seven-day period.

“Because we were so significantly short, the region has agreed to provide some support for travel and accommodation,” Ross said.

Since November 2016, the region has spent $3,457 on flights and accommodations for the B.C. doctors.

Ross is confident a longer-term solution is on the horizon, and hopes the ER is fully staffed by July 1. “We’ve significantly increased the number of residents we’re training — we’re graduating nine this year,” he said. “The ministry and the College of Medicine has increased that, and we’re going to graduate 11 next year.”

He hopes all nine will remain in Saskatchewan — between Regina and Saskatoon.

The RQHR has sent letters of offer to the graduating doctors and Ross expects Regina’s ERs will get between four and six.