Pine Falls emergency department service suspended

The more than 1,200 people living in Powerview-Pine Falls are without a local emergency department for the second time in a year.

The Pine Falls Health Complex in Powerview-Pine Falls suspended emergency service on Thursday. The emergency department had previously been closed in May, due to a lack of nurses.

The department's schedule on the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health authority website shows the current closure will go on until at least Sept. 15.

The closure of the complex's emergency department — which is about 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg — is the latest in a series of closures across the province in recent months, after more than two years of pandemic response. 

In August, the Northern Health authority began transferring patients in Lynn Lake Hospital to Flin Flon because of staffing issues.

August also saw staffing challenges at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba's largest hospital. During one weekend the emergency department was down to only eight nurses in a shift, well short of the 24 needed to fully staff a shift.

In July, the physicians' advocacy group Doctors Manitoba raised concerns about the stability of health care in rural and northern Manitoba, saying more hospitals could have ER closures or reduced operating hours.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon has previously said the province's health-care system is dealing with a lot of challenges, including staffing shortages.

In August she said her ministry is working with Shared Health on a plan to tackle shortages, from training additional nurses to having paramedics or physician assistants there to help triage patients.