{"id":323728,"date":"2025-12-04T00:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/323728\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T00:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:04:12","slug":"long-hospital-wait-times-due-to-staffing-shortages-lack-of-beds-nlma-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/323728\/","title":{"rendered":"Long hospital wait times due to staffing shortages, lack of beds, NLMA president says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association (NLMA) says its members are voicing concerns over increasing emergency room wait times and is urging the provincial government to address the cause of the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members are not able to, you know, get to patients as quickly as they would like,\u201d NLMA president Dr. Cynthia Slade told CBC Radio\u2019s The St. John\u2019s Morning Show.<\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons why wait times are so long, she said, including staffing shortages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some emergency departments have had to reduce services, provide service virtually or close temporarily, which Slade said diverts patients to other emergency departments.<\/p>\n

She said a lack of available beds is also a factor. Admitted patients often end up staying in emergency beds because other hospital beds are full.<\/p>\n

Some patients who are ready to be discharged to long term care end up staying in hospital because there are no beds available in those facilities either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have patients that are in the emergency department who are waiting for lab tests,\u201d she said. \u201cThat takes time and also depends on staff availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improving access to primary care<\/p>\n

Slade said lack of access to primary care is a major contributing factor to long wait times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as a province have a population with the highest proportion of seniors and those for chronic conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Woman\"Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association president, Dr. Cynthia Slade says a lack of primary care is a factor in increasing emergency room wait times. (NLMA)<\/p>\n

Slade said when patients don\u2019t have a family doctor to address health concerns early on, they end up going to emergency departments when their conditions become worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those factors create a ripple effect and it backs up the entire system,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slade said the province needs to have enough family doctors for every resident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that when you have a family doctor who provides continuity of care and you form that longitudinal relationship with them \u2026 that’s the best outcome for our patients,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slade said the province needs to recruit more family doctors and health-care staff to work in emergency rooms and in rural areas.<\/p>\n

Slade said recruiting more staff would be cheaper than the province paying private companies, Teladoc and Fonemed, for virtual doctor services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s not a standard that we should be striving for, especially considering that we have our own medical school,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Slade hopes the recently opened Unity Health Centre in the east end<\/a> of St. John\u2019s will reduce pressure on emergency rooms, she said recruitment of more staff can\u2019t be forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to remember that the staff that are working up at the urgent care hub are also the staff that we have in our system. So we’re moving people around,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBC News asked the health authority for an interview.<\/p>\n

Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-323728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}