Kingston, Ont., health-care professionals say the entire health-care system is under strain and on the verge of collapse as it gears up for the continued impact of a sixth wave of the pandemic.“Our hospital situation has not fully recovered from previous waves insofar as nurses are concerned,” says registered nurse Debra Lefebvre. “Long before the pandemic, we had a nursing shortage of approximately 22,000 nurse professionals.
“I think we’ve been struggling for a while, and by struggling I mean that we aren’t able to respond in the way that we would like to,” says KHSC COO Dr. Renate Ilse. “And so that means that sometimes care is delayed and in clinics we might not have as many nurses present as we would like.”Ilse says over March break the shortages were so significant they had to call in managers, directors and vice presidents to ensure safe care at the hospital.
“We know health-care leaders, hospital administrators, they’re doing their very best and we’re all trying to cope, but how much more are we expected to cope? We need leadership and we would very much like to have the mask mandates reinitiated.”Quebec extends mask mandate to end of April as province faces rising COVID-19 numbers