A shortage of physicians will keep the doors closed all weekend at Horizon Health's Sackville Memorial Hospital.
Any patients in need of care will have to travel to nearby Amherst, N.S., or make the 30-minute trek to Moncton, N.B., if necessary.
Megan Mitton, the Green MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar, said staffing shortages at emergency rooms is a province-wide problem.
"It is so difficult for our community to keep dealing with these closures," said Mitton. "Unfortunately this is something we are seeing across Horizon. We've seen this show up in Sussex. We've seen it in major centres. Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John, where people have been told this summer don't come to the ER unless you're on death's door. It's really a system-wide problem. Unfortunately, it's also impacting Sackville."
Nine out of ten nursing positions have been filled at the emergency department in Sackville, but there are only three of the seven doctors needed.
Thursday in Fredericton, Mitton asked the head of the Horizon Health network for a status update on staffing at the hospital in Sackville.
Horizon Health interim president and CEO Margaret Melanson praised the partnership between the community and the health network to try to keep the ER open 24-hours a day, seven days a week, but admitted recruiting physicians has been a challenge.
"What we are continuing to do is create incentives for an hourly rate to be offered to physicians," said Melanson. "They are in talks with another physician who is hopefully going to accept to come to that facility at least one week every month and they're also going to recruitment fairs."
At Mount Allison University, roughly 2,300 students will not have close access to an emergency department this weekend and that has the head of the students' union worried.
"Would you be concerned if for 48 hours the closest hospital you had was in another province?" asked Rohin Minocha-McKenney. "That's what I'm hearing from students. The closest hospital we have is Amherst and it is an option that not many students can have. Transportation issues are big for students."
Last fall, staffing shortages forced Horizon to reduce the emergency department's hours in Sackville to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and those hours remain in place.
"I ended up breaking my foot last year and I had to wait until the next morning to go to the hospital because it had closed at four that day," said second-year student Lauren Ryan. "It's hard for a university town to have a hospital that doesn't work. Especially on weekends. There are people drinking and there are things that can happen."
First-year student Cole Pottle said there are a lot of new students on campus like himself.
"A lot of us are new and not very familiar with the area or the town. Especially with a lot of sports teams playing this weekend, I feel like a lot of hospitality will be in use and for it to be closed is certainly a concern," said Pottle.
The emergency department is scheduled to reopen Monday at 8 a.m.
