Global Courant 2023-05-16 14:00:00
Hospital closures on PEI have increased since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by CBC News.
That’s as Health PEI says it has completed an assessment that will determine what service delivery in rural areas could look like for years to come.
CBC News combed through all of the hospital service closure notices the county had issued over the past three years.
“We don’t have enough nurses and more and more are being asked of us, but we can’t keep the services running as they are now.”
Closures skyrocketed in 2022
In 2020, closures took place 31 days a year, either in cooperating emergency centers or in control rooms. That equates to approximately 133 hours of closed shifts.
In 2021, the number of affected days dropped to 26 days. But the hours when services were not offered increased by nearly 50 percent to 195 hours, as they either closed earlier or did not open at all.