Hotel Dieu’s urgent care centre to run on reduced weekend hours – Kingston | 24CA News
Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) says it will likely be limiting weekend hours at Hotel Dieu Hospital’s pressing care centre because of staffing issues.
The hospital group says it’s going through a scarcity of emergency medical physicians, and that lowering hours on the pressing care centre will enable higher staffing at Kingston General Hospital’s emergency division, which runs 24 hours a day, on daily basis.
KHSC says Hotel Dieu’s pressing care centre will probably be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends, whereas weekday hours will stay 8 a.m. to eight p.m.
Due to staffing points final summer time, the pressing care centre started capping the variety of sufferers that may be seen in a day. KHSC says the cap will stay in place throughout the decreased hours. This means it’s potential the pressing care centre could shut sooner than 4 p.m. on weekends.
The cap quantity adjustments day after day and relies on the supply of medical professionals, in addition to on wait instances and the complexity of sufferers receiving care, KHSC says.
KHSC says the transfer factors to a bigger downside: that hospitals in Ontario can’t sustain with the demand in emergency care.
“Despite our recruitment efforts, we continue to be significantly short-staffed and our doctors and nurses are stretched thin,” says Dr. David Messenger, head of emergency drugs at KHSC.
Messenger mentioned that over the past six months, specifically, Kingston General Hopsital’s emergency division has been overloaded.
It’s an indication of a stretched medical system following years of stress from the pandemic, based on Dr. David Pichora, KHSC’s president and CEO.
“No single organization will be able to solve these systemic problems on their own,” he mentioned.
Kingston General Hospital’s emergency division can also be southeastern Ontario’s principal referral centre for main medical points, which provides to the already elevated load seen on the division.
Amid the elevated demand, KHSC is asking these in search of medical care on the hospital to pay attention to the companies the totally different departments supply.
Kingston General Hospital’s emergency division is supposed to handle “critical or life-threatening conditions that need immediate attention,” like heavy bleeding, severe shortness of breath, a damaged main bone, extreme and sudden ache or a change within the capability to maneuver, communicate or suppose.
The pressing care centre is supposed for “new medical conditions and injuries that can’t wait to be treated” corresponding to cuts needing stitches, wounds or burns, sprains or suspected minor damaged bones, and signs of an infection.
KHSC says many individuals who attend the pressing care centre could also be higher served by a major care doctor.
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