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Hospitals see surge in non-covid ER visits

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Barrie -

As pandemic restrictions loosen and residents feel more comfortable leaving home, local hospitals are seeing a surge in emergency department visits.

Reasons range from sports-related injuries to those who have put off seeking medical treatment for more than a year now.

"I think if we could've seen the doctors, I would've been healed a lot quicker," says Sutton resident Jim Stevens.

Stevens is one of hundreds of patients only now walking into the emergency department at Southlake in Newmarket needing a CT scan after putting off trips to the walk-in clinic and hospital for months as COVID-19 cases surged.

"And I think that's what happened to me as a lot of the doctors couldn't see me. It was over-the-phone consultations."

Health officials at Southlake Regional Health Centre say what they're seeing are people who were afraid to go to the emergency room over the last 13 to 14 months, and now they're coming in sicker, and they're coming in droves.

"We definitely see a big surge in the early afternoon right through to right around 10ish at night," says the director of Mental Health and Emergency Department, Elizabeth Lalingo.

While Some patients are still unable to see their family doctors, they're now seeking medical treatment at their local emergency department. Now patients are waiting longer than usual, as staffing levels remain about the same or stretched thin.

"The critical nursing shortage that we're seeing now, and we're going to continue to see in the future, is making it really challenging to ramp up our staffing," says the emergency and medicine director of critical care at Stevenson Memorial Hospital, Mary-Beth Hennin.

"We're doing the best we can, but often we're running short on nursing in our emerg department,"

The health care system is already facing a backlog of thousands of surgical procedures due to mandated pauses during the pandemic, and local hospitals are seeing a 25 to 40 per cent increase in emergency department visits.

In some cases, patients find themselves waiting several hours to be treated as staff try to catch up.

"Everyone is seeing the same exact pressures with staffing issues as well as volume increases which is mismatched significantly and wait times increasing because of that, so that fourth wave we feel is here in the emergency department," says RVH emergency department manager Sharon Ramagnano.

Understanding the frustration that comes with waiting for hours in your local emergency department, staff at RVH are asking visitors to be patient to ensure anyone who needs medical attention can get it.

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