Bowmanville hospital restores ICU services after weeks-long closure over staffing crunch

Bowmanville hospitalsays it is resuming services at its intensive care unit today after a weeks-long closure.

Lakeridge Health temporarily closed the Bowmanville Hospital ICU in late July to consolidate services at the Ajax Pickering and Oshawa hospitals due to significant staffing shortages.

Wednesday marks the return of inpatient critical care services, after some critical care nursing services were restored in mid-August.

Lakeridge Health said last month there had been no loss of critical care bed capacity across the network during the closure and a critical care physician remained onsite in Bowmanville.

The health network says its emergency room services stayed open during the ICU closure.

Ontario ICUs and ERs have contended with temporary closures throughout the summer as Canada grapples with a shortage ofhealth-care workers.