P.E.I.’s second-largest hospital has its intensive-care unit back after a closure that lasted more than two years.
The ICU at Summerside’s Prince County Hospital officially opened its doors again on Aug. 12.
Since the provincial government closed the unit in May 2023 due to a lack of specialized staff, more serious intensive-care patients have been treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, more than 60 kilometres away.
Johan Viljoen, Health P.E.I.’s chief medical officer, said the agency expects staffing at PCH to be more consistent.
“What is really different is that the team is stable. They have stable staffing going forward right into 2026,” he told CBC News.
“The team has worked very hard on enhancing the skills and abilities of all team members. So they are with confidence able to provide high-level critical care.”
Relief for staff and patients
During the closure, the ICU operated as a progressive-care unit, which could only manage patients who needed less urgent care. That meant some of the most critical patients had to be transferred to the QEH, far away from home.
Lindsay Kucera, clinical lead in Prince County’s ICU, said this was difficult for both patients and staff.
“It’s so satisfying to get to this point after such a long road, to be able to say, ‘We’re open and we’re ready,'” Kucera said. “The community needs us. They need these services that we provide.”
Lindsay Kucera, the clinical lead in PCH’s ICU, says the community needs the services the unit provides. (Laura Meader/CBC)
Kucera said some PCH staff left during the shutdown because they couldn’t use their specialized training.
“It was tough. It was very hard to come in and not do the job that you knew you could do,” she said. “I lost a lot of friends and colleagues because they moved on.”
WATCH | Summerside hospital’s ICU back open after 2-year closure:
Summerside hospital’s ICU back open after 2-year closure
The intensive-care unit at Prince County Hospital closed in May 2023 due to a lack of specialized staff. Officials now say staffing levels are much better, and that it’s great to be able to offer the higher level of care again. CBC’s Laura Meader has more.
While the unit has reopened, Viljoen noted there are still certain cases that will need to be transferred to QEH.
“An example is when you get really ill, you will find that some of the systems shut down, for instance, your kidneys, and you may for a time need renal dialysis, and then such a patient would need to be transferred to QEH,” he said.
“Or if a patient has particular needs in maybe slightly advanced surgery or needs to see the neurologist, then they would need to be transferred.”
‘Continue to build’
Dr. Tyler McDonell, medical director at PCH, said the unit’s closure began when a shortage of internists made it impossible to cover medical calls.
Over the past two years, the hospital and Health P.E.I. have worked to rebuild what he called the “three pillars” of ICU care: respiratory therapists, nurses and physicians.
When the ICU at Summerside’s Prince County Hospital was shut down, it was scaled back to operate as a progressive-care unit that could only manage patients who needed less urgent care. (Laura Meader/CBC)
By Aug. 12, they had enough permanent and temporary staff in place to cover schedules in all three areas.
“A big shout-out to the core, small group of people that stuck it out in the last two years, because that was the core that we’ve built around. And they stuck it out, you know, likely out of an immense sense of compassion and commitment to the community,” McDonell said.
“The number of people we have now is safe and sufficient to be operational here at the Prince County Hospital. That’s not to say we don’t need to grow. We do need to continue to build.”
Dr. Tyler McDonell, the medical director at PCH, says that over the past two years, the hospital and Health P.E.I. have been working to rebuild the ICU team. (Laura Meader/CBC)
Viljoen agreed, saying recruitment remains an ongoing effort.
“We have a very steady stream of very skilled internal medicine physicians who come and do locums. But we are constantly working at recruiting individuals that will stay with us permanently,” he said.
“We’re always looking for permanent ICU nursing staff. We’re definitely always looking for physicians, and we’ll never say… ‘No, thank you’ to an intensivist that would want to join us.”
Viljoen explained that an intensivist is a physician who trained primarily as an internal medicine specialist, and then went on to do a fellowship training in critical care.
‘A great step forward’
For Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher, the reopening brings relief to people in the region who have waited a long time.
“So many members of our community were concerned over the course of the last couple of years, and so [this is] a great step forward,” he said.
A town hall meeting in Summerside last year saw hundreds of residents turn out to vent their concern and frustration to provincial health officials.
“Really proud that our community came together to make their voices loud and heard,” Kutcher said. “People took notice, and it’s glad we are where we are today.”
Matt MacFarlane, leader of the P.E.I. Green Party, says he will stand with health-care workers. (Zoom)
Matt MacFarlane, leader of the P.E.I. Green Party, welcomed the news but said it was government decisions that led to the unit’s closure in the first place.
MacFarlane, who’s also the MLA for Borden-Kinkora, said problems began when two of the three ICU physicians at PCH resigned after asking for changes to improve their work-life balance.
“This government refused, and those physicians had no choice but to resign, leaving the western end of P.E.I. without an ICU and only one in our entire province,” he said in a statement.
He also linked the issue to the recent heated dispute between the Medical Society of P.E.I. and the Department of Health and Wellness and Health P.E.I. over government benchmarks for family doctors. The dispute is now heading for mediation.
“As government heads into mediation with Island family physicians, we’re seeing the same top-down approach, a refusal to collaborate, and policies that push doctors away instead of keeping them here,” he said.
“This kind of leadership continues to erode health care across the province.”