Hundreds stuck in N.S. hospitals due to staff shortages in long-term care homes

There's growing frustration among hospital staff and administrators in Nova Scotia that more isn't being done to free up beds currently occupied by people waiting for space in long-term care facilities.

As of January 11, 355 hospital inpatients were eligible for discharge if a long-term care facility was willing to take them. One hundred of those people are at the province's largest hospital, the QEII Health Science Centre in Halifax.

Amidst the Omicron wave, the QEII is under pressure, where only the most serious cases get a room in the emergency department and everyone else is treated in hallways.

Transfer from ambulance to emergency room staff has also slowed to a crawl. Wait times range from hours to half a day.

"Getting patients into long-term care is a real challenge right now and it's made that much worse because long-term care is facing the same challenges that we are," said emergency room physician Dr. Kirk Magee, who also oversees emergency departments in the Halifax area.

"Anything that can be done to expedite our ability to get patients out of hospital into long-term care would certainly be welcome news."

But COVID-19 has also hit long-term care homes, causing staff shortages across the province.

The Nova Scotia government is currently unable to provide a figure on how many seniors home beds are closed as a result, said spokeswoman Kristen Lipscombe.

"The number of long-term care beds unoccupied due to COVID-19 is also a very fluid number that changes rapidly based on staffing pressures and current outbreaks so we can't provide a truly accurate picture at this time," Lipscombe told CBC News.

As of Tuesday, 50 nursing homes and two residential care facilities were dealing with COVID-related absences or infections, she said. 

"Of these 52 facilities, 18 are classified as having an outbreak," Lipscombe said.

"The public health definition of an outbreak is two or more laboratory confirmed cases in residents and/or staff in a 14-day period, and there is an epidemiological link between the cases and at least one case could have acquired the infection in the facility," said Lipscombe. 

"The number of nursing homes currently impacted accounts for 70 per cent of the beds in the province."

Appearing Tuesday before the legislature's Standing Committee on Health, Paul LaFleche, deputy minister of long-term care, said hospital transfers were a priority and that the province was aware of the problem.