This blog has been written by Dr. John Simpson, Director & Chief of Emergency Services at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare
With pandemic restrictions easing, people are getting back to their regular lives and engaging in activity and adventure once again. In some cases, people are only now following up to get medical help for care they may have deferred during the pandemic.
We are seeing both scenarios in our Emergency Departments in Bracebridge and Huntsville where volumes are on the rise and wait times are getting longer. In May, Emergency Department visits across our two sites rose 17% year over year. And in June, there were more than 4,100 visits to the two departments. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on health human resources across the health care system. In addition to the toll that the pandemic has taken on health care workers dealing with the pressures of responding to COVID-19, our hospitals are also experiencing unprecedented hospital use and unrelenting high occupancy. For us, this is not just another summer in Muskoka. The hospitals are still in the midst of the pandemic, working in a fragile state with strained staffing. Read more…