Closing Western Hospital's ER overnight is 'taking chances,' doctor warns
CBC
The head of Western Hospital's emergency department says closing the ER at night amounts to walking a tightrope without a safety net.
The Alberton, P.E.I., hospital's overnight collaborative emergency centre has been closed for almost a year due to chronic staffing shortages, and the daytime ER often shuts down services due to a lack of workers as well.
Dr. Robert Campanaro says the hospital's emergency room sees about 30 patients a day on average, and though the vast majority of visits happen during the day, closing the ER at night could put lives at risk.
"Medicine is not something that happens 9 [a.m.] to 5 [p.m.] — people get sick 24 hours a day," he said in an interview with CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin.
"Generally speaking, when people feel sick enough to have to come to a hospital at two in the morning, it's usually for something significant. Most people are not coming because of a stubbed toe or a hangnail. They're coming because they may have chest pain or shortness of breath or abdominal pain."
Campanaro said he understands staff may be more useful elsewhere across the system — but says they're still "taking chances" by not offering overnight services.
"If you are a tightrope walker with a 99 per cent chance of crossing that wire, you don't need a safety net. But every once in a while you're going to fall and you need a safety net. I think inevitably, at some point people will fall and there won't be the safety net there to catch them."
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.