Summerside hospital's ICU will be back up and running this summer, province says

P.E.I.'s health minister says the province will have enough staff to restore Prince County Hospital's intensive-care unit by this summer. 

The announcement was part of the Progressive Conservative government's 2025-26 budget address Thursday in the legislative assembly. 

Finance Minister Jill Burridge hailed "the return of full-time internal medicine coverage at Prince County Hospital, allowing their ICU to formally reopen this summer."

Health Minister Mark McLane later told CBC News the province has hired a sixth internal medicine doctor who's expected to start at the Summerside hospital later this year. 

"We certainly won't say no to any [additional] internal medicine physicians," McLane said. "They are very difficult to recruit and to hire." 

Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher welcomed the news and said it signals progress.

"Making announcements with something that's going to come in four months is, I'd always be a little cautious there but… the pieces are coming together and really important for our community," he told CBC's Island Morning on Friday.

"That's why I sort of say fortunate and cautiously optimistic."

The eight-bed intensive-care unit at Prince County Hospital has been closed since May 2023 due to a lack of specialized staff.

Since then, more serious intensive-care cases have been handled at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, 60 kilometres away.

PCH had been operating an eight-bed progressive-care unit until January 2024, when Health P.E.I. cut the number of beds to four because there weren't enough medical personnel to look after eight patients.

That decision spurred a town hall meeting in Summerside last year that saw hundreds of residents turn out to vent their concern and frustration to provincial health officials.

Kutcher said the province's latest commitment shows that the concerns of western Islanders are being heard.

He added that having the ICU reopened this summer will make a significant difference to the region's ability to care for patients closer to home.

"It goes to being able to provide critical-level care for patients in a way that is safe and effective, and not have to ship them out to Charlottetown or elsewhere, so that people get their care in their community," the mayor said.

"We know that with critical care, time matters, so having those services here can make a life-saving difference for someone from Alberton or O'Leary or Borden or Kensington or Summerside."

McLane said Thursday that the hospital still needs more staff like critical-care nurses and respiratory therapists, but he added that Health P.E.I. has hired a nurse practitioner to support the unit. 

"Critical-care nursing continues to be a shortage at the PCH," McLane said. "At any one time, we need about eight to 13 critical-care nurses… to support the unit."