As COVID-19 cases skyrocket in Newfoundland and Labrador, Public Health capacity is being stretched to the max.
The province reported another 100 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday – tied for the all-time record high – just hours after it moved into Alert Level 3, which meant the closure of bars and theatres and restrictions on visitation in hospitals and long-term care homes.
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday, Yvette Coffey, president of the Registered Nurses Union of Newfoundland and Labrador, implored residents of the province to follow Public Health guidelines and be kind to staff at vaccination and testing clinics.
“We are already over capacity. We’re already understaffed and we’re utilizing volunteers to help out,” she said.
There are reports of lengthy wait-times for COVID-19 testing, and in a media release on Thursday, the Department of Health said there may be a delay in getting positive results due to an “extremely high volume” of tests.
Meanwhile, there were long lines for booster shots this week, as Public Health scrambles to reinstate mass vaccination clinics.
Meeting demand
In a statement, a spokesperson for Western Health said the regional health authority is rescheduling some non-urgent work, redeploying staff working in areas with reduced services over the holidays, and asking staff if they’re willing to come in on their days off.
The regional health authority is also looking at the qualifications of staff who are not normally involved in testing or vaccination, said the spokesperson.
“We have requested staff from all areas in the organization, including managers, to support testing and vaccine clinics.”
The spokesperson said testing is available within 24 hours of filling out the online self-assessment form in Western Health, but noted that the health authority created a walk-in testing clinic in the Corner Brook area to help meet demand.
In a statement on Friday, Eastern Health announced it was cancelling all non-urgent outpatient laboratory tests — like blood work — on Dec. 29, 30 and 31 as staff are reassigned to help administer COVID-19 booster shots. Urgent and emergency testing will continue.
Staffing up
Coffey said “the push is on” to recruit as many qualified individuals as possible to help with the response to COVID-19.
She said the regional health authorities are redeploying staff from other units and hiring new licensed practical nursing graduates to help with vaccinations and testing. According to Coffey, the regional health authorities are even asking for help from qualified volunteers – and they’ve gotten an “overwhelming response.”
“We need everybody on deck to help with the immunizations and to help with the swabbing clinics so that we don’t overwhelm our current health-care system,” Coffey said.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, N.L. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said Public Health is pulling health-care staff from other areas to work on the COVID-19 response in order to avoid a surge in hospitalizations.
“Our fear is that if we start to see severe illness, it will overwhelm our health-care system which is already stretched,” she said.
In a letter on Monday, Fitzgerald pleaded with the province’s physicians to help deliver booster shots in order to alleviate pressure on Public Health staff. The province’s dentists have also offered to help get shots in arms, though they haven’t yet been given the go-ahead.
Coffey said there is a shortage of nursing staff, but she believes the regional health authorities are getting the help they need.
“Right now, there’s enough people to staff these clinics,” she said.
‘A perfect storm’
In a letter on Wednesday, the Association of Allied Health Professionals of Newfoundland and Labrador raised the alarm concerning what it says is a chronic shortage of respiratory therapists – a group that primarily works in critical care.
“In the past six weeks we have seen a troubling escalation in incidents of 24-hour shifts, short-staffing, consecutive shifts, and excessive overtime, and there is no end in sight,” reads the letter.
In an interview, AAHP president Gordon Piercey didn’t specifically connect the current shortage of respiratory therapists in Newfoundland and Labrador with the current outbreak of COVID-19, but he said the possible need for some employees to isolate would make the shortage even worse.
Piercey said there are about 60 to 70 respiratory therapists in the province, though some have recently resigned. He said the association is concerned that there may have to be a reduction in some services, such as surgeries, due to the staff shortage.
“What we’re looking at as we’re moving forward is, you know, maybe things are going to have to be cancelled or rescheduled,” Piercey said.
He said the AAHP has asked for a meeting with Health Minister John Haggie, and may even look to pull in resources from other parts of the country – or even the Canadian Armed Forces – to help alleviate pressure on staff.
Coffey noted the government has announced it plans to create a health-care human resource plan, and said it has started consultations with the leadership of health-care groups.
However, while she stopped short of calling for federal assistance, she agreed there is a shortage of critical care staff in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“We do have a perfect storm brewing here in this province with the shortages,” she said.
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