HALIFAX 鈥� Nova Scotia is reporting a drop of 35 per cent in the number of hours emergency departments were closed across the province.
A new provincial report says that between April 2023 and the end of March 2024, ERs were closed for 51,552 hours.
That's down from 79,813 closure hours in the previous 12-month period.
In the latest report, released in late December, there were 28,171 hours during which ERs could not open because they did not have enough staff to safely operate 鈥� down from 41,923 hours over the prior 12 months.
The report says health-care worker recruitment and retention efforts have been ongoing to reduce staffing shortages in ERs.
And while things are improving, ER closures caused by a lack of workers represented 55 per cent of all closures between April 2023 and March 2024.
Over that 12-month period, Nova Scotia emergency rooms were open for 87 per cent of their official operating hours.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2025.
The Canadian Press
