The Chesley Hospital faces difficult challenges in order to reopen its emergency department 24-7.
Hospital officials outlined the problems at a public meeting last night. (TUES) The emergency department has been closed from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M. since last September after two nurses left leaving the hospital short-staffed.
But Hospital CEO Michael Barrett says it's difficult filling the positions. There's a shortage of nurses province-wide and, unlike urban hospitals where nursing is specialized, rural hospital nurses need a wide range of skills.
"Here they do everything. It doesn't matter what type of emergency shows up at the door those nurses are the ones that have to respond whether it's a cardiac event, whether it's a stroke, whether it's a broken leg, they need to be prepared for everything," said Barrett.
Barrett added they can't just hire a nurse and drop the person into the job. They need to be supervised and mentored before they can fully take on the job
He said an additional issue facing the Chesley hospital is retaining the nurses they already have.
"They can go to the city, they can go to another employer. We need to make sure the Chesley site and all of our other three sites are as attractive a place as we can so they want to stay working here," said Barrett.
He said they're doing everything they can to get the E.R. reopened round the clock but it will take time. So the Chesley hospital emergency department will remain closed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. for the foreseeable future. They expect to hold another information meeting in May.
