Emergency Departments at Horizon’s The Moncton Hospital, Saint John Regional Hospital report decrease in visits over weekend

HORIZON – Horizon is reporting a reduction in non-urgent visitation to Emergency Departments (EDs) in Moncton and Saint John this past weekend.

As part of Horizon’s plan to ensure urgent health care is available to all New Brunswickers who need it, the public was provided other access options to respond to non-life-threatening visitations of the EDs at The Moncton Hospital (TMH) and Saint John Regional Hospital (SJRH).

“Thanks to the swift response of New Brunswickers, patient registrations for non-urgent issues at each site were below normal rates, said Margaret Melanson, Interim President and CEO, Horizon Health Network. “I would also like to sincerely thank our hard-working physicians, nurses and staff for ensuring the continuation of safe and quality care over the weekend and every day.”

Overall, TMH recorded a 13.2 per cent reduction in ED registrations on Saturday, Aug. 27 and Sunday, Aug. 28 when compared to the weekend average for the previous 12-week period, with the SJRH ED reporting a decrease of 29.8 per cent.

For TMH, this amounted to a daily average of 85 patients seen this past weekend, down from a 12-week average of 98.

Saint John Regional Hospital, meanwhile, saw a daily average of 77 patients on Aug. 27-28, which is well below the weekend daily average of 110 registered patients over the last 12 weeks.

While ED visits for emergency and urgent medical conditions remained relatively consistent over the weekend, there were significantly fewer people presenting for less/non-urgent needs, to which the overall reduction in ED activity can be largely attributed.

Examples of non-urgent medical issues which can be treated in other health care settings include:

• sore throat, toothaches or earaches
• possible bladder infections
• rash (such as scabies, etc.)
• testing for sexually transmitted infection
• lower back pain from lifting or twisting
• flu symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, chills, and fever
• prescription refills

We encourage New Brunswickers to continue to use other options for non-urgent medical needs, such as Tele-Care 811, virtual care and after-hours clinics. More information on these options are available at https://www.sowhywait.ca. 

– 30 –