Another Quebec ER had to shut down because of a lack of nurses, who are exhausted

Health officials in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield west of Montreal say the SurotHospital emergency room has now reopened, after it wasforced to shut down last night because of an acute staffing shortage.

Ambulances were diverted to the Anna-LabergeHospital, more than half an hour away in Chteauguay.

The deputy managing directorof the Montrgie-Ouest regional health board, Patrick Murphy-Lavalle, says there are normally 14 nurses on duty in the emergency room.

The hospital hasn't had that many nurses on the ER floor for weeks, though. Yesterday, when six out of 10 nurses scheduled to workcalled in sick from exhaustion, the hospital made the decision to stop taking in new patients.

Other hospital ERs in the province have been forced to close temporarily, curtail hours or are operating at more than 200 per cent capacity due to a lack of personnelsince the beginning of the pandemic, as nurses decryhow dismal working conditions have become.

Murphy-Lavallesaid even upper management staff had to come in and lend a hand at the Surot hospital.

"Our associate executive director was on the floor at the emergency room, giving care. We had managers, we had inhalation therapists, who were also giving care because we just simply did not have enough staff," he said.

Long shifts push nurses toexhaustion

Murphy-Lavalle blames the shortage on vacations and exhaustion due tothe COVID pandemic.

But the head of the nurses union in the region, Mlanie Gignac, says the nursing shortage has been going on for months, andthat the union has repeatedly warned hospitalmanagement this would happen.

"Yesterday, one of the nurses on staff had worked four 16-hour shifts in a row, so how are you going to be vigilant in giving care?" Gignac said.

She said the nurses who didn't show up were past the brink of exhaustion.

"When there's no one to replace you, what are you supposed to do?" Gignacasked.

Dr. Bernard Richard Jr., in charge of the hospital's emergency services, says workers are "in really deep distress."

In July, doctors for another health board, theCIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'le-de-Montral, penned an open letter to Quebec's Health Ministry, warning of a breakdown of ER services because of staffing shortagescaused by nurses fed up with pandemic working conditions.

The regional health board says it may askmanagers to help out once again in order to keep theER open tonight, but is urging people to avoid Surot Hospital unless it is an absolute emergency.

20 per cent more nurses in private sector this year

According to Quebec's Order of Nurses, about 20 per cent more nurses are working for private agencies this year, suggesting hundreds have left the publicsector since the start of the pandemic.

Opposition leader in the National Assembly have slammed Premier Franois Legault this week for not doing more to prevent a crisis in Quebec's ERs.

Legault says his government is putting a plan together to try toconvince the nurses who left the public sector to come back.

"We are planning to have a very, very important plan. It will be costly, but we need to convince nurses to come back," he said."

"We cannot train new nurses in a few months. It takes years," Legault added.