Work continues to reopen ICU at Summerside hospital, says health minister

Health P.E.I. continues to recruit and hire doctors and other staff at Prince County Hospital in Summerside, but the situation remains challenging, the province's health minister said Thursday.

There is locum coverage confirmed for the summer months at the hospital, said Mark McLane, and one new internist has been signed and will begin working in July.

McLane said the hospital would need six internists in order to reopen the intensive-care unit, or ICU, which has been closed since May 2023.

The hiring process for new physicians can take anywhere from seven to 12 months, he said.

Health Minister Mark McLane says he plans to provide an update on the situation at the Prince County Hospital to the public and the mayor of Summerside. (Rick Gibbs/CBC)

"We don't land every fish, obviously. It's a very competitive market," McLane said. "Until they sign, they're not signed."

Matt MacFarlane, the health critic for the P.E.I. Green Party, raised the issue of the shuttered ICU at the hospital during question period in the provincial legislature Thursday.

"The minister has provided some comforting words of encouragement, but unfortunately has shown little evidence that things are actually improving," he said.

Matt MacFarlane, Green Party MLA and health critic, said in the legislature Thursday that he's heard of two nurses who have left the PCH. (Ken Linton/CBC)

MacFarlane said he's heard of two nurses who left the PCH, and Health P.E.I. altogether.

He asked McLane to hold another town hall on the issue.

Hundreds of people packed a meeting to address concerns about Prince County Hospital's services in February, after the number of beds in the hospital's progressive-care unit was cut from eight to four.

The progressive-care unit is what remained after the ICU's closure due to staffing shortages.

An ICU needs to have internal medicine specialists working around the clock, but the Summerside hospital didn't have the bodies to make that possible. PCUs require only family doctors, hospitalists and nursing staff to run.

Hundreds of people attended a town hall in Summerside in February to address concerns about health services at PCH. (Sheehan Desjardins/CBC)

McLane agreed it was time to provide an update on the situation at the hospital to both the public and Summerside's mayor, but he didn't say what that update might look like.

"We hear the residents, we understand their advocacy, but there's no decisions or reductions of services that we're intending to do with the PCH," McLane said after question period.

Province needs to be 'all-in' on ICU

Dan Kutcher, the mayor of Summerside, said in a statement to CBC News that he is encouraged to hear that the minister was planning to update his community.

"The key for us is to ensure that residents, and residents of all Prince County, and health-care professionals and staff have clarity and confidence that the government is all-in on getting critical-care services fully re-established at the PCH," part of Kutcher's statement read.

McLane said Health P.E.I. has hired two new nurse practitioners for the Summerside hospital and is also working to hire 10 associate physicians — foreign-trained doctors who don't have the credentials to work as full physicians in Canada, but who can work under the supervision of a physician.

"Right now we need to ensure we protect the staff so that they stay at the facility, that they don't burn out," McLane said.