There's hope that the temporary closures of the emergency department at the Sackville Memorial Hospital will be fewer and fewer.
The ER at the New Brunswick hospital has been closed at least five times during weekdays since late June and patients have been forced to go to either nearby Amherst or Moncton for care.
Last fall, the hospital's emergency department changed it's hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
On Thursday, Horizon Health interim president and CEO Margaret Melanson said five new registered nurses have been hired to work at the hospital, thanks to a recruitment partnership with the Sackville community.
"That has been a great way to address this, and other municipalities are likewise wanting us to work with them and we're really pleased to do that," said Melanson during a Zoom chat with reporters on Thursday.
"We recognize these partnership efforts are likely the best approach toward recruiting and retaining staff, particularly in some of the more rural areas of our province."
Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton says five new nurses is good news, but it's not enough.
"It is getting better, however there's a lot more work that needs to be done around physician recruitment, so I would urge Horizon to really look at that because that's where we're running into trouble, especially right now. The nurses, we're in a safer place, but we can't forget there's lots of health-care professionals that we need to train, recruit and retain," said Mitton.
Sackville Mayor Shawn Mesheau says physician recruitment is still a challenge, but having more nurses is a positive step. He's been advised by Horizon that the working group of nurses at the hospital is strong
"I think there's hope, even now at this point in time, they may even look to in the fall, maybe even increase some of those ER hours," said Mesheau.
Mitton would like to see more government investments in training to help anyone who wants to become a health-care professional.
"Helping cover their tuition costs," she said. "It's really expensive to go and study in post-secondary education, so there needs to be continued investments to make sure we're not just scraping by."
Mesheau says people in town understand now they may not always get full service without travelling to a larger hospital.
"However, it's having that access so that if there is an emergency, if something urgent happens with your health, it doesn't matter what time of day it can happen, I think that's still on people's mind," he said. "I know people are starting to feel a little more comfortable in the fact that things are progressing well."
Both Mesheau and Mitton said the ultimate goal is to have the hospital's emergency department open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
