KCMH emergency room temporarily suspending Saturday hours starting January 11

CANADA, December 23 - The Kings County Memorial Hospital (KCMH) will be temporarily suspending emergency services on Saturdays beginning January 11 due to staffing challenges. 

The KCMH Emergency Department (ED) is experiencing a shortage of staff at a time when demand for emergency services is increasing. Pausing these services will allow Health PEI to stabilize the situation and continue to develop a long-term plan to ensure sustainable emergency care.  This includes now having three physicians working Monday through Friday in the Emergency Department to provide timely care while the ED is open. Efforts to increase access points to care outside the Emergency Department setting are also part of this stabilization work, including expanding walk-in clinic access, including the new walk-in clinic at the Down East Mall.

“I want people in Kings County to know this is not a decision we made lightly,” said Melanie Fraser, CEO of Health PEI. “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.”

Health PEI remains focused on maintaining and expanding emergency care services at KCMH. Like other emergency departments across the province, KCMH’s ED often sees a disproportionate number of non-urgent patients who could be treated by primary care. An Incident command group will be activated to focus on recruiting the necessary staff to expand ED hours, implementing new access points, and working with the community to ensure timely access to care is available in the region.

“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.”

The final emergency department Saturday shift will be Saturday, January 4, 2025 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. The normal weekday hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. remain unchanged. Health PEI will reassess the situation in April.

Anyone with emergency medical needs should call 9-1-1 or seek emergency services when:

• experiencing discomfort or tightness in the chest;
• experiencing unusual shortness of breath;
• experiencing abdominal pain;
• experiencing prolonged and persistent headache or dizziness;
• an injury may require stitches or involve a broken bone;
• a child has prolonged diarrhea or vomiting; or
• a baby under six months of age has a fever of 38°C (100.4°F) or higher.

A stroke is a medical emergency. Do not drive to the hospital. Call 9-1-1. Learn the signs of stroke. Think FAST: Face: is it drooping? Arms: can you raise both? Speech: is it slurred or jumbled? Time to call 9-1-1 right away.

If you have any health concerns or need immediate health information, call 8-1-1 to speak to an experienced registered nurse for advice on the best course of action.

Many PEI health services are available without a referral from a physician or nurse practitioner. For a full list, visit: Find Health Care.

Island pharmacists can assess and prescribe for many common ailments and renew eligible prescriptions through the Pharmacy Plus PEI program.

For a list of walk-in-clinics near you, including the community walk-in-clinic at the Down East Mall, visit: Skip the Waiting Room.

Media contact:
Everton McLean
Chief Communications Officer, Health PEI
emclean@gov.pe.ca