Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre Closing

Staff being redeployed to Niagara's Emergency Departments

Effective Thursday, January 6, at 11 p.m., Niagara Health says it is  temporarily closing the Urgent Care Centre at its Fort Erie Site in order to redeploy emergency-trained physicians and nurses to Emergency Departments where they are most needed.

In an email officials say "despite undertaking all available measures to alleviate staffing pressures in our EDs, there continues to be an immediate need for these highly-trained nurses’ and physicians’ skills and experience. Our three EDs are open 24/7 and see an average of 400 patient visits each day."

The chair of the Niagara Health Board of Directors, Bunny Alexander adding “Temporarily closing the Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre was a decision that was not taken lightly. The Board of Directors and Senior Leadership agreed that we need to take this step to address staffing shortages and maintain essential services for the high volumes of patients in our community needing emergency care. Other hospitals throughout the province have taken similar measures throughout the pandemic.”

NH officials also note they are currently caring for 104 patients who are positive with COVID and managing five outbreaks at hospitals in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland.

As well the hospital system has 354 staff members in self isolation with 146 staffers testing positive for the virus since December 21st

This week, Niagara Health says it is postponing outpatient cataract surgeries.

Next week, scheduled inpatient surgeries will resume at 30%, focusing on cancer and other urgent cases.

Maximum capacity has also been reached in Intensive Care Units and  eight additional critical care beds have been opened forcing them to redeploy staff to care for these patients.

Hospital CEO Lynn Guerriero says “This wave of the pandemic is beyond anything we have experienced. We have exhausted all options, and the temporary closure of the Urgent Care Centre is a measure of last resort."

The Urgent Care Centre in Port Colborne remains open and people can also access virtual urgent care services at www.UrgentCareOntario.ca.