Canada: Why ERs are struggling to stay open nationwide
On a Thursday in mid-August, the entryways of a clinic's crisis division two hours west of Toronto were closed. A note posted on the front said the ER was shut for the afternoon. It would resume the next morning at 08:00, yet close again for the night. Patients who required critical consideration were approached to go to local emergency clinics - a 15-to 35-minute drive away. It was the 10th time since April that the Huron Public Healthcare Alliance - an organization of four medical clinics serving around 150,000 individuals in western Ontario - needed to briefly close or cut back hours at one of its crisis divisions. Furthermore, it won't be the last, said the association's CEO Andrew Williams. The explanation? There aren't an adequate number of medical attendants to staff the ER. "You are seeing - practically week by week - medical clinics decreasing their administrations," Mr Williams told the BBC. It's a problem working out at crisis offices across Ca...