Despite challenges, closing emergency department 'not an option,' Sudbury hospital CEO says

While emergency departments have been forced to close in other parts of the province, Health Sciences North CEO Dominic Giroux says that's not going to happen in Greater Sudbury.

Giroux said patient numbers at HSN this summer are setting records, far higher than previous years.

"We’ve seen an average of 530 admitted patients in July and August and this does not include the 60 patients receiving care at the Clarion Hotel," he said.

"Pre-COVID we would have an average 492 admitted patients in July and August."

While staff at HSN are exhausted, Giroux said they have managed to recruit more staff – 800 in the last 12 months, including 200 nurses.

But with exhaustion already widespread because of the pandemic and the high patient numbers, he described the situation as fragile but stable.

"While we’ve been successful with recruitment, our acute inpatient areas are short staffed on most shifts and that’s because (the) acuity of care that our patients require has gone up since the pandemic," he said.

"That means that we have more admitted patients, so we have more staff taking sick time because they contracted COVID in the community or are exhausted from the two and a half long years of the pandemic and the increased workload as well.”

There are 20 patients at HSN are waiting for a long-term care bed, but Giroux said that's because they are waiting for a bed in a preferred LTC home, rather than taking the first available spot.

"Today, these homes have an occupancy of only 1,360 residents. So this means that there are 81 unoccupied long-term care beds in Sudbury with at least 22 beds confirmed by Ontario health as being available," Giroux said.

"The problem is that these available beds might not necessarily be the No. 1 choice for HSN patients waiting."

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On Wednesday, the province passed legislation aimed at placing residents in the first available bed.

But France Gelinas, Nickel Belt MPP and NDP health critic, said she opposes forcing someone into a home they haven't chosen.

"Consent is a bedrock of our health care system. Nothing happens to you in health care without your consent," Gelinas said.

"But now, for a group of people called 'frail elderly,' we are taking away that right. This is wrong. No matter how frail you are, no matter your age, you deserve respect just like everybody else."

She said that when the province used to force seniors into the first LTC home that had a bed, it caused a lot of heartache.

"I can tell you that over 200 families reached out to my office because their loved one had been placed far away," she said.

"I have this story of a man who called my office every single day for two years because he wanted his wife to come close to him. He didn’t want his wife to be in a long-term care home far away from him and the day we finally got her to move, she passed. He never got to hold her. He never got to be with her. It was just horrible.”

While LTC beds remain a huge issue, Giroux said the hospital is making progress in other areas. Surgeries have bounced back to 95 per cent of pre-COVID levels, compared to the Ontario average of 83 per cent.