Staffing ERs at Shelburne, Digby hospitals an ongoing challenge

‘Looking ahead, we do have some gaps, especially over the upcoming holidays,’ NSHA regional spokesperson says

There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight to the closures of emergency departments at the Roseway Hospital in Shelburne and the Digby General Hospital due to physician unavailability.

“Yes, it is true we are experiencing ongoing challenges with the emergency department schedules at Roseway and Digby Hospitals,” said Fraser Mooney, regional spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA). “Past experience tells us we face more scheduling challenges over certain times, such as Christmas holidays, summer months or long weekends. We have found these are times when locum doctors may choose to work in their own practices or find locum shifts closer to home.”

With staff at Roseway and Digby already scheduling emergency department shifts well into next year, “looking ahead, we do have some gaps, especially over the upcoming holidays,” said Fraser.

“We expect that a number of these gaps will be filled. We will be following up with our regular locum doctors and sharing our schedule with others across the province,” he said. “Staff will work to try to fill any gaps right up until the last minute, usually the day before the closure. From time to time we are faced with last-minute situations. For example, if a physician who is scheduled to work has to call in sick, or they are unable to make it because of the weather, it is tougher to find a locum to fill in on short notice, but it has happened.”

With the exception of the dedicated, full-time emergency doctor at the Digby hospital, for the most part the NSHA depends on locums or temporary doctors to staff the ERs at Roseway and Digby hospitals.

“One thing we are doing to maintain emergency department services is working to identify new locum doctors,” said Mooney. “For example, one of the recent Dalhousie Family Medicine Residency graduates based in Yarmouth has been doing some emergency department shifts at Roseway. For the long term, we are focusing our recruitment efforts and working to create strategies that will allow us to maintain emergency services in places that have seen closures, like Roseway and Digby.”