The Grey-Bruce Health Services may have to consider temporary emergency room closures this summer.
Vice President of Strategic Services Maureen Solecki says it’s the absolute last resort, but they are facing a serious physician shortage.
She says it takes 9.5 full-time doctors to run the Owen Sound emergency room at it’s maximum potential, and right now they have only three full-time and five part-time.
Solecki says with resources already stretched, they can’t burden doctor’s loads anymore than they have.
Solecki says they’ve been strategically planning for months to avoid a closure situation.
She says they’ll be operating with less doctors to make coverage at all sites more effective.
Solecki says the human resources are so strained, if one doctor were to be unavailable unexpectedly, it could result in a shutdown of the ER.
She adds it’s very important the public be kept aware of what’s going on at all the sites.
If an emergency room has to close for an evening this summer, Solecki says they’ll do their best to give the public 48 hour notice, and redirect them to another ER site in the region as quickly as possible.
