Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital closes birthing unit as staff shortage worsens

A multi-week closure of labour and delivery servicesat the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital is raising concerns that health-care staffing shortages are spreading to new areas of hospital operations.

The hospital said in an internal memo circulated to staff on Thursday thatit will temporarilyclosethe unit from Sept. 22 to 7 a.m. on Oct. 10 due to staffing shortages.

Thehospitalnormally operatesfour birthing roomsat its Smith Falls campus. Thenearest alternative is now theAlmonte General Hospital, locatedmore than45 kilometres away.

"The staffing shortage is beginning to assert itself around other services which are fundamentally very important,"said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.

Todate, hospitalclosures in the regionhave been mostly confined to emergency rooms and intensive care units. For that reason, Hurleysaid, "what'shappening in Perth really bears watching."

The closure follows a wave of similar cutbacks and shutdownsin hospitalsacross eastern Ontario, including an emergency room closureofmore thanthree weeks at thePerth hospital in July and another of24 hoursat theCarleton Place & District Memorial Hospitalin early August.

Hurley said the latest closure "reflects a severe staffing shortage" madeworse by the relative lack of access to health-care alternativesin rural settings.

Pertha 'microcosm of the bigger problem,'physician says

The memo notifying staff about the closure, obtained by CBC News,outlined rules for specific limits onhow many and what type ofpatientscan be treated in the labour and delivery unitduring the closure.

Alan Drummond, an emergency room physician at the Perth hospital,said he believes the closure was likely "well thought-out"with appropriatecontingencies for patient care. But, he added, the closure remainssymptomatic of theunderlying problems of staff turnover and burnout.

"If it was ever an example of a system in crisis or a health-care system that was crumbling our hospital would seem to reflect that as a sort of microcosm of the bigger problem,"said Drummond.

"Right now we are bleeding nurses like there is no tomorrow ...and it is purely and principally nursing staffing shortages on the basis of disrespectful treatment by the provincial government."

Solutions in progress, ministry says

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care said in anemail statement to CBCthatit isaddressing staffing problemsthrough ahealth-care plan released in mid-Augustthatwill add up to 6,000 more health-care workers in the province.

Hurley, however, is not convinced that will help much.

He said the additional workers area positive, but the totalmakes upsuch a small fraction of the workforce it represents a"very modest" initiative.

"We're asking the province to focus on measures to retain and attract and recruit staff," Hurleysaid. "They're going to have to do better than they're doing at the moment."