AMHERST, N.S. — Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin is calling on the Nova Scotia Health Authority to reopen closed acute care beds at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre, but the NSHA is saying the beds haven’t been closed.
The MLA told the Amherst News on Jan. 13 the four acute-care beds should be reopened to ease the pressure on the hospital’s emergency room and to keep patients from spending excess time on stretchers in the hallway.
“The reality is every bed should be open,” she said. “Every bed is important. The way it is now there’s four people that have to lie on a stretcher in emergency.”
Smith-McCrossin said it’s the second time in a year four acute-care beds at the hospital have been taken out of service. Last year, she said, four beds in the step-down unit in the ICU were quietly closed due to a nursing shortage. After writing the minister the beds were reopened.
“The doctors and nurses were told it was because of a shortage of nurses, but as soon as I contacted the minister of health they were reopened. Something similar has happened,” she said.
A month or so before Christmas, the MLA said, four swing beds in the maternity unit were taken out of service and while no explanation was given, she has been told by staff that it was for the same reason.
The MLA has again written Health Minister Randy Delorey and has also written Dr. Brendan Carr, the new CEO of the NSHA.
Along with having the beds put back in service, she’s requesting management to investigate the reason for the closures.
“If it’s a nursing shortage, is it because of lack HR planning ?,” she said. “What is the underlying reason for the shortage, if that is the cause. They need to address those problems right away.”
Glen Stinson, director of access and flow, patient care services with the NSHA, said there have been no acute-care bed closures at the Cumberland regional hospital.
“In the fall of 2019, while the women and children’s health unit was building nursing capacity, there were four beds to be assessed as potential overflow options for off-service medical/surgical patients on a day-to-day basis,” Stinson said in an email to the Amherst News. “In the coming days, the unit will be at full staffing capacity, those beds are in use by obstetrical, gynecology, surgical and pediatric patients.”
If by chance there are empty beds on the women and children’s health unit, Stinson said, hospital staff would consider using them for off-service medical/surgical patients (not acute care) in overcrowding situations if appropriate.
