Intensive Care Unit of Campbellton Regional Hospital closes temporarily to assist Emergency Department

Campbellton, Thursday, August 26, 2021 – As the Network reported last week, the Campbellton Regional Hospital (CRH) is facing an unprecedented shortage of nursing staff.   Although this shortage is being felt throughout the facility, the Emergency Department has been particularly affected. 

The Network still intends, as announced on August 20, to implement a temporary 12-bed reduction plan in its Obstetrics-Gynecology Unit in order to redeploy staff to the Emergency Department.  However, a number of steps remain to be completed before this can occur and the effects will only be felt in a few weeks.

To keep the Emergency Department open in the coming days, the Network must take other short-term measures.  “We must temporarily close our Intensive Care Unit beds from August 26 to September 9, 2021. This will free up skilled human resources to keep our Emergency Department open and free up medicine beds in order to implement our initial temporary bed reduction plan,” stated Dr. France Desrosiers, President and CEO of the Network. 

The patients currently admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the CRH will be transferred to the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst and the Edmundston Regional Hospital.  New patients from the Restigouche region needing intensive care will also be directed to these two hospitals. This transfer protocol will also apply to residents of the Listuguj First Nation and Avignon RCM, in Quebec, if they wish.  If not, they will be transferred to a Quebec hospital.

As of July 30, 2021, there were 91 nursing positions to be filled in the Restigouche Zone, or almost 27 percent of our vacant positions in this field. The Network as a whole has 387 vacant positions. “In the Emergency Department of the CRH, nearly 50 percent of the nursing positions are vacant.  Employees have made tremendous efforts to maintain services in recent months and I thank them. With help from the Intensive Care Unit nursing staff, it will be possible to keep the Emergency Department in Campbellton open, provide safe patient care and give our employees a modest break,” Dr. Desrosiers explained.