Prince County Hospital’s intensive-care unit back up and running after 2-year closure

PEIP.E.I.’s second-largest hospital has an intensive-care unit again after a lack of specialized staff forced its shutdown in 2023.Staffing levels have stabilized, allowing Summerside hospital’s ICU to reopen, officials sayJohan Viljoen, chief medical officer for Health P.E.I., says staffing levels for Prince County Hospital’s intensive-care unit are stable going into 2026. (Zoom)P.E.I.’s second-largest hospital has its intensive-care unit back after a closure that lasted more than two years.The ICU at Summerside’s Prince County Hospital officially opened its doors again on Aug. 12.Since the provincial government closed the unit in May 2023 due to a lack of specialized staff, more serious intensive-care patients have been treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, more than 60 kilometres away. Johan Viljoen, Health P.E.I.’s chief medical officer, said the agency expects staffing at PCH to be more consistent.”What is really different is that the team is stable. They have stable staffing going forward right into 2026,” he told CBC News.”The team has worked very hard on enhancing the skills and abilities of all team members. So they are with confidence able to provide high-level critical care.”Relief for staff and patientsDuring the closure, the ICU operated as a progressive-care unit, which could only manage patients who needed less urgent care. That meant some of the most critical patients had to be transferred to the QEH, far away from home.Lindsay Kucera, clinical lead in Prince County’s ICU, said this was difficult for both patients and staff.”It’s so satisfying to get to this point after such a long road, to be able to say, ‘We’re open and we’re ready,'” Kucera said. “The community needs us. They need these services that we provide.” Lindsay Kucera, the clinical lead in PCH’s ICU, says the community needs the services the unit provides. (Laura Meader/CBC)Kucera said some PCH staff left during the shutdown because they couldn’t use their specialized training.”It was tough. It was very hard to come in and not do the job that you knew you could do,” she said. “I lost a lot of friends and colleagues because they moved on.”WATCH | Summerside hospital’s ICU back open after 2-year closure:Summerside hospital’s ICU back open after 2-year closureThe intensive-care unit at Prince County Hospital closed in May 2023 due to a lack of specialized staff. Officials now say staffing levels are much better, and that it’s great to be able to offer the higher level of care again. CBC’s Laura Meader has more. While the unit has reopened, Viljoen noted there are still certain cases that will need to be transferred to QEH.”An example is when you get really ill, you will find that some of the systems shut down, for instance, your kidneys, and you may for a time need renal dialysis, and then such a patient would need to be transferred to QEH,” he said. “Or if a patient has particular needs in maybe slightly advanced surgery or needs to see the neurologist, then they would need to be transferred.”‘Continue to build’Dr. Tyler McDonell, medical director at PCH, said the unit’s closure began when a shortage of internists made it impossible to cover medical calls.Over the past two years, the hospital and Health P.E.I. have worked to rebuild what he called the “three pillars” of ICU care: respiratory therapists, nurses and physicians.When the ICU at Summerside’s Prince County Hospital was shut down, it was scaled back to operate as a progressive-care unit that could only manage patients who needed less urgent care. (Laura Meader/CBC)By Aug. 12, they had enough permanent and temporary staff in place to cover schedules in all three areas.”A big shout-out to the core, small group of people that stuck it out in the last two years, because that was the core that we’ve built around. And they stuck it out, you know, likely out of an immense sense of compassion and commitment to the community,” McDonell said.”The number of people we have now is safe and sufficient to be operational here at the Prince County Hospital. That’s not to say we don’t need to grow. We do need to continue to build.”