Resumption of Full 24-hour Emergency Department services at Hôpital Glengarry Memorial Hospital (HGMH)

Ontario continues to experience a system-wide pressure on emergency department staffing levels due to staff vacancies across the system. Through HGMH’s gradual resumption planning the hospital is now in a position to resume full 24-hour Emergency Department service 7 days per week effective today, August 22, 2022. The temporary partial closure and gradual resumption planning of the Emergency Department has allowed staffing to stabilize to a level that the organization can safely resume normal operations.

The resumption of 24-hour emergency services 7 days per week is made entirely possible by the hard work and dedication of the staff and physicians at HGMH. Changes to schedules, nurses continuing to work additional shifts, onboarding 9 new and returning nurses, and partnering with nurse staffing agencies have all been contributors to the safe resumption plan.

“The priority of HGMH is providing safe patient care at every encounter. Regular operations would not have resumed if we could not do so safely. Although we are at a point where we can safely resume 24-hour 7 days per week emergency services, our staffing remains delicate and cannot guarantee that ad hoc closures may not be required in the future as the safety of our patients and staff is our priority” said Robert Alldred-Hughes, President & CEO.

“I would like to thank the HGMH team for supporting the safe resumption planning, and our system partners who were also impacted by the difficult decision to partially close our emergency department over the last number of weeks. We also sincerely appreciate our community’s understanding as our hospital navigates this challenging situation. We want you to know that your care is our highest priority, and the key to all our decisions is safety of our community and our people”. Alldred-Hughes added.

The hospital continues to actively recruit new Registered Nurses and Registered Practical Nurses to the organization. Recently it has been announced that eligible nurses can receive up to $25,000 to work at HGMH through the Community Commitment Program for Nurses sponsored by the Government of Ontario, for a 24 month return of service.