Hanover and District Hospital is hoping to benefit from a new provincial program that would reduce the workload on emergency room doctors.
The hospital has sent a letter to the Ontario Hospital Association expressing interest in being a demonstration site for the expanded Physician Assistant Program.
Physician Assistants are able to perform many of the same tasks as doctors as long as they are under their supervision.
They already work in the Canadian Forces Medical Corps, in Manitoba hospitals, and have been used in hospitals in the United States since the 1960’s.
Hanover Hospital CEO Katrina Wilson hopes they will qualify to be one of the demonstration sites.
She says Hanover’s doctors are extremely busy when they work in the emergency department and believes having Physician Assistants would help the hospital recruit more doctors to work in the E-R.
Wilson says it’s getting more and more difficult to have enough doctors to fill emergency shifts and having a physician assistant would make it easier for the department to operate during the daytime shift.
The hospital will submit it’s application before the January 29th deadline.
Wilson is confident doctors will be available to staff the emergency department for shifts in February, although not all time slots are filled yet.
