Glace Bay ER closed again as community, health authority look for solution

More troubles for Glace Bay Hospital Emergency room closed for 40 straight days will stay closed through the weekend. Ryan MacDonald reports.

There are more troubles tonight for the Glace Bay Hospital.

After just being closed for 40 days, its emergency room is closed again through the weekend and that’s likely to cause more overcrowding at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital’s Emergency Room.

This spring, the emergency room at the Glace Bay Hospital has been closed more than it's been open.

The closures are all due to what the health authority calls a lack of physician coverage.

“I have not only family members, but many people in town are ill and they just can't get a doctor,” said Minnie Livingstone. “Now you can't even get in the hospital.”

Dr. Chris Milburn is head of the emergency room at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital where patients end up going when their community ERs are closed.

“I think this is a chronic issue at this point,” said Milburn.

He says while they've grown somewhat accustomed to dealing with the overcrowding it is hard on staff.

He feels the solution lies in having more family doctors and walk-in clinics for less serious health issues rather than increasing emergency room capacity.

“The emergency room can't function as a family doctor and a walk-in clinic, and an emergency room,” Milburn said. “We're already an emergency room. Our mandate is to deal with people who have heart attacks, strokes, car accidents.”

Despite these emergency room difficulties, there is some optimism when it comes to doctor recruitment for both community hospitals like Glace Bay, and the Cape Breton Regional.

“We do have some new doctors here starting in the summer, Including some who are going to be doing ER shifts,” Milburn said. “So there's always some positive things happening. The bigger questions are: ‘What's the balance?’ (and) ‘Are there more leaving than are coming?’”

In an email, the health authority says there are occasions when the Cape Breton Regional ER is put at or near capacity, when there is a temporary community ER closure and that wait times can be long.

“I was in Sydney about a month ago,” Livingstone said. “I waited more than six hours just to get my blood pressure taken.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.