The Emergency Department at the Northside General Hospital has now reopened after being closed for most of the week because it had reached patient capacity. District spokesperson Lynn Gilbert says the Department began taking patients again at 3:00, yesterday afternoon after an influx of people with severe illnesses last Friday. She adds the District and doctors were able to clear the backlog through patient discharges and by transferring patients to other units. Gilbert says closing Emergency Departments because they’re full is rare but adds when it does happen it takes time to work through the problem.
