Quinte Health continues to see a high volume of patients and unpredictable surges, including in its emergency department.
At Monday’s meeting of the Quinte Health Board of Directors in Bancroft, members heard its hospitals continued to experience new patterns of demand throughout the summer.
Some days in September and August resulted in record volumes of medicine inpatients.
Officials says five years ago they could predictably expect volumes to only peak over the winter respiratory seasons but now there are regular periods of surge throughout the year, with a high degree of variability throughout a month.
Meanwhile, Quinte Health has welcomed 277 new employees since April 1.
The hirings include 65 Registered Nurses, 51 Registered Practical Nurses, four Nurse Practitoners and 33 Allied Health and other regulated health care professionals.
Though Quinte Health did not provide Quinte News with an exact number of staff who may have left the organization over the last five months, we were told they have a less than six per cent voluntary turnover rate.
The provincial voluntary turnover rate is about 11 per cent.
Officials also report a local partnership established earlier this year has helped in making strides towards cultivating a homegrown health care workforce
Health PULSE – Partners United in Local Solutions for Everyone – involves local municipalities, Quinte Health, and Loyalist College working together to address health care shortages in the region due to staff shortages.
