An Ontario nursing union told CTV News Toronto that at least 14 hospitals will be affected.
“Long weekends always have increased ER visits, so there will be further staffing issues, further burnout issues,” Ontario Nurses Association President Catherine Hoey said Thursday afternoon.
At the heart of the closure is a staffing crisis that Hoy said she can only compare to the “Titanic”.
“That’s how serious it is,” he said. “I don’t even know if there are words for it anymore.”
Hoy says Bowmanville is a community that cannot afford to lose 12 intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
But in a statement, Lakeridge Health told CTV News Toronto they had to make the “difficult decision” to temporarily close the ICU and transfer patients to Ajax Pickering and Oshawa hospitals.
“We recognize the impact of this temporary relocation on patients and their families. This decision was not made lightly,” Lakeridge spokeswoman Sharon Navarro told CTV News Toronto.
Emergency rooms in Wingham and Listowel will also be closed for parts of the weekend.
Hoy said these closings are the result of nurses leaving the profession “in droves.”
Birgit Umaigba, an Ontario emergency room nurse, said she has seen it with her own eyes. Just yesterday, the ICU he was going to work in closed.
She said two more colleagues told her they were ready to leave the profession, adding to the list of more than a dozen she has seen recently leave the profession to work at Boston Pizza and Costco, some with decades of experience.
The latest figures from Statistics Canada show the seriousness of the situation. Nearly one in four nurses said they planned to change jobs or leave their jobs in the next three years.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s health minister said Sylvia Jones was not available for an interview and instead shared a statement.
“Like many other jurisdictions around the world, Ontario’s health care system is under pressure due to the challenge of maintaining required staffing levels.”
While Hoy said it’s “too late” for a quick fix, she said repealing Bill 124, which caps a nurse’s salary increase at one percent, is a start.
The bill was introduced by the Ford government in 2019 as a way to “ensure public sector compensation increases reflect the province’s fiscal position,” the government said at the time.
But Hoy said repealing the bill is the only way to keep nurses alive and give them the hope they need.
“It’s going to be a sign of hope so people don’t keep giving up. That finally, finally they’re going to be recognized and that we’re going to do something for them.”
The CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario described the situation as “extremely serious.”
Speaking to CP24 Thursday afternoon, Doris Greenspoon warned that the situation in hospitals will not improve even after the long weekend.
“It’s pretty horrible that we got to this situation, especially knowing what the situation was,” he said.
“August is only going to get worse. This isn’t just about this long weekend.”
Greenspoon called on the prime minister to act and fix the situation, renewing her group’s call for Bill 124 to be repealed immediately.
“This is the worst case scenario. We never imagine it will be this bad,” he said.
“We need action today. Nurses need to know that the premier, every cabinet minister stands with RNs to put them back to work and offer them the compensation and working conditions that will keep them in Ontario.”
