Sussex ER closed for weekend because of staff shortages caused by COVID-19

The emergency department at the Sussex Health Centrewill be closed for the evening and night shifts thisweekend because a number of staff are off sick with COVID-19, the Horizon Health Network said Friday.

Horizonannounced that emergency services will not operate between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"The Emergency Department will not be seeing patients and clients during the temporary closures and ambulances will be diverted to other hospitals," a news release said.

It stated that the temporary closures are the result of a shortage of nurses, but did not specify what had caused the shortages.

In an interview with Shift New Brunswick later onFriday, Horizon president and CEO Dr. John Dornandiscussed the Sussex ER closure and confirmed that the staff shortages were due to COVID-19.

"We've had to turn off the ER overnight for this weekend. But the good part about that is, it's not because of a lack of a staff that are working there, it's staff that are sick.... People that are sick with COVID will get better and come back to work," Dornan said.

"We have had a stable workforce, a good workforce in Sussex and so we're optimistic. And when we get to the other side of this weekend, when fewer people are sick, more people are vaccinated, we will survive that."

Dornan did not say how many Sussex staff were off sick, but Horizon spokesperson Kris McDavid later confirmed that100 staff are off work because ofCOVID in all of Zone 2, including Sussex.

On Monday, emergency services will return to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Horizon said.