Southern Health says the reason it was forced to cut back emergency room hours at Ste. Anne Hospital is because they are suddenly short four physicians in the community.

It was announced yesterday that starting today, the ER will be open from 8am to 8pm seven days a week as opposed to 24/7. Dr. Denis Fortier, Vice-President of Medical Services for Southern Health, notes, unfortunately, it's a perfect storm in Ste. Anne right now. He says they have physicians departing for other opportunities in the academic field, some away on maternity leave and one away with an upper-body injury. Dr. Fortier notes with four fewer doctors, they are not able to service a 24-hour Emergency room on top of all their other duties.

"These physicians are not only on call, those same physicians who work in the emergency room, also run a full primary care clinic (in Ste. Anne), run a hospital, deliver babies and help in the operating room," says Fortier, "they do it all which is something that we very much appreciate but there comes a time when they just can't do it all."

Dr. Fortier adds they are just burnt out and this gives them the opportunity to catch their breath a bit.

With the Ste. Anne emergency room being closed from 8pm to 8am, anyone in the southeast with an emergency in those hours would have to go to either the Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach or go to Winnipeg where wait times are already long. But Dr. Fortier notes compared to the total amount of patients who visit the ER in Ste. Anne during the day, there are not many in the overnight hours. He says if the numbers would continue as projected, the Ste. Anne emergency room would see 13,500 patients this year and notes only about 800 of those in the overnight hours that they would be closed.

As for ambulances, Dr. Fortier says calls during those overnight hours, EMS will determine the severity of the patient's condition and based on that will transport them to Steinbach or Winnipeg.

Dr. Fortier says they expect to get some of their physicians back soon but notes they will remain with current hours for the next six weeks at which point their team will re-evaluate.

"We're certainly hoping to open 24 hours," adds Dr. Fortier, "what we've given ourselves is a little bit of breathing room for the physicians so that they can catch their breath."

He says they have committed to meeting again with their team on November 30th to see if anything has changed and come up with a plan to move forward.

In the meantime, Dr. Fortier encourages people to only visit the emergency room for emergencies. He adds if you have a cold, the flu or something more minor in nature, to go to a primary care clinic to free up the emergency room for those in need of urgent care.