P.E.I. hospital ER temporarily suspending Saturday hours in January

The lawyer of a woman whose husband died at a Florida hospital says the surgeon removed the wrong organ. (Pixabay/Pexels)

A Prince Edward Island hospital will be suspending emergency services on Saturdays due to staffing shortages.

The Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague will temporarily suspend emergency services on Saturdays starting Jan. 11, according to a news release from Health PEI.

“I want people in Kings County to know this is not a decision we made lightly,” said Melanie Fraser, CEO of Health PEI, in the release. “Our efforts to maintain Saturday morning services by increasing incentives for locum physicians was partially successful, but the ongoing uncertainty of opening and closing the emergency department week-to-week has been extremely stressful on staff.

“We need to take this action to avoid over-burdening some of our most important, skilled, and valuable workers.”

The final Saturday shift in the emergency department will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 1. Regular weekday hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. will remain unchanged.

“There is no solution to our issues with emergency services without improving access to primary care,” said Fraser. “We are working to affiliate more Islanders with patient medical homes. We have seen success this year in physician recruitment and are focused on affiliating patients to Medical Homes as we enter 2025.”

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