Charlottetown hospital ER is keeping pace with influx of tourists so far this season, official says

An administrator at P.E.I.'s largest hospital says staff have been able to keep up with the surge of tourists who need to seek medical care after arriving on the Island, despite longtime strains on the health-care system.

Health P.E.I. says emergency departments across the province expect to see around 30 additional patients per day during the summer months for things ranging from infections to broken bones. Throw in summer staffing issues and it can be a challenge to handle everyone in a timely manner.   

"Wait times are not where we all want them to be… They're based on a lot of factors with regards to resources and volume," said Terry Campbell, the administrator at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown.

"But the wait times don't change that much in the summer… We still are able to process patients fairly well." 

Campbell said Health P.E.I. did take steps to prepare for the influx of people who could require medical services by bringing in locum doctors and travel nurses to relieve pressure on the system while still letting Island health-care workers take time off in the most popular months. 

"From a staffing level, it seems like it's better this year. It seems to be less gaps to fill. There's always gaps, especially in summer, but there's not as many of those to fill as other years," Campbell said.

In previous years, in-patient beds have sometimes had to close due to staffing shortages, but currently all those beds are open at the QEH, and Campbell hopes they will not need to close this summer. 

"If patients go to the emergency department and unfortunately have to be admitted to hospital, their next destination is an in-patient bed. And if those beds are closed, then there's less in-patient beds to go in, and of course everything backs up from there," Campbell said.

"So having them open is a big factor."

Seasonal challenges 

The summer and winter seasons provide different challenges to the health-care system.

In the winter, health-care workers tend to see more seasonal and respiratory-type illnesses.

Although visits typically go up in the summer months, wait times for beds don't change much because tourists often have more minor concerns like an infection.

While wait times are continuously a challenge in Island hospitals and there is still work that needs to be done to reduce them, Campbell said tourists and residents alike should continue to seek emergency services if they need to. 

To help them decide when to go, the P.E.I. government maintains a website to let people see what current waiting times are like at the four hospital emergency departments across the province, in Charlottetown, Summerside, Montague and Alberton. 

For example, on Thursday evening at 8 p.m., there were 71 patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency department, with 12 of those being treated by a physician. New patients showing up could expect to wait up to 10 hours, depending on how severe their medical issue was.