'Exhausted all options': Town of St. Marys navigates impact of overnight ER closure

For the third night in a row, the emergency department at St. Marys Memorial Hospital in the small town of St. Marys closed at 6 p.m. on Monday.

The overnight closures are in place until 7 a.m. on Wednesay. During them, all emergencies will be sent to Stratford, London or Ingersol.

The Huron Perth Health Alliance say the decision was made due to staffing shortages – and it’s not something they do lightly.

“To come to this decision our leaders, our staff physicians, have really exhausted all options because this is not something that we do impulsively,” said Mary Cardinal, VP of people and chief quality executive at Huron Perth Health Alliance.

According to Cardinal, the emergency department in St. Marys needs at least two trained staff to operate.

The fact it’s not been able to reach that threshold shows how stretched hospital staff are.

During the overnight emergency department closures, the number of paramedics on shift has increased in order to provide quick emergency care.

Hospital officials say they have been rocked with staff COVID-19 cases, putting a strain on all departments. In total 84 people at St. Mary’s Memorial Hospital are off with COVID-19 symptoms or a close contact.

“That’s a significant burden in terms of trying to staff all departments across our hospital,” said Cardinal.

Staffing an ongoing challenge in small towns

Hospital officials and St. Marys Mayor Al Strathdee say staff shortages are nothing new.

“It’s no secret it’s hard for small towns to compete to attract physicians,” said Strathdee.

They say pandemic burnout and the recent spike in COVID-19 cases has exposed the cracks in the system.

“We have a healthcare foundation that’s worked incredibly hard to try to attract health care providers, to show them the value of living in a small town,” said Strathdee. “But it’s a struggle.”

So far, the Huron Perth Health Alliance say Saturday and Sunday were non eventful, and are hopeful the remaining two nights of the night time closures will be the same.

They say anyone in need or emergency care after 6 p.m. is being asked to call 9-1-1.

Editor’s note: This story has been amended to make clear the overnight emergency department closure is happening at St. Marys Memorial Hospital in the Town of St. Marys, not St. Marys General Hospital in Kitchener.