The GatewayCentre of Excellence in Rural Health held another lecture series session on rural emergency departments.
The session was called "Don’t Shut the Doors: Why Rural Emergency Departments Must Stay Open."
The session was held via Zoom on August 8. Dr. Ken Milne, Gateway's Research Chair of Rural Medicine and a local practicing doctor, says there are many myths about why rural EDs are closing a lot. He says there's many factors, but it isn't just a lack of physicians.
"Many hospitals have had to close their emergency departments on sort of a temporary basis, as in every night, for months to years now, because of a nursing shortage. So it's a lack of healthcare workers, a lack of clinicians in general," Dr. Milne explained.
Dr. Milne says when local EDs close, it creates strain in other communities that may need to take those patients on.
"The neighbouring community is not up-staffed, they don't get additional resources such as nurses, they don't get additional physicians, they don't get additional rooms to see these people in. It also really puts a strain on our local EMS partners," Dr. Milne pointed out. "There's no local resource to take care of these patients, so that has to be transferred to a neighbouring community, the next closest hospital, which is already barely keeping their head above water. So you add that additional volume to them, and things just get worse."
When a local ED is closed, EMS crews spend less time with patients and responding to calls, because they're spending more time transferring patients between communities. Dr. Milne adds more has to be done to train and retain healthcare workers in rural areas.
The Gateway Centre is doing many innovative things to try and solve that issue, including the annual Discovery Healthcare Camps, where young students get to discover what local healthcare work looks like in smaller communities, hopefully inspiring some to become future healthcare professionals.
On top of the obvious need for more funding, Dr. Milne says primary care funding needs to be more of a priority for the government to help rural residents in particular.
"So that patients can be linked to a primary care facility with nurse practitioners, social workers, physicians, dieticians, physiotherapists, pharmacists, all working together on 'Team Patient' keeping people healthy so we don't overrun the emergency department," stated Dr. Milne.
In the past, Dr. Milne shares that emergency medicine was referred to as the canary in the coal mine.
"Well, the canary died a long time ago. I like to think of the emergency department as the lighthouse. It is the light in the house of medicine, that is always on for anyone, at any time, for anything. What we're seeing is these lighthouses having their lights turned off," Dr. Milne stressed.
For any aspiring healthcare workers that are thinking about rural practice, Dr. Milne adds that he's been working in a rural environment for over 30 years, and would love to chat with anyone interested in taking on a role in rural healthcare.
For more information, contact info@gatewayruralhealth.ca.