This comes as universities on the peninsula begin to fill up with students for the start of the school year, including Dalhousie University. Last year, thousands of students took to the streets in parts of central Halifax to party on the fourth weekend in September. Dr. Caitlin Lees, a palliative care and internal medicine physician at the Nova Scotia Health Authority, said a huge group of revelers gathered in the Larch Street area last year and several people were injured after jumping from balconies and trees. Others required medical attention for alcohol poisoning. The large crowd made it difficult for emergency services to reach students who needed medical attention and took “significant” police resources. “This year, we know it’s likely to happen again,” Lees said. “There’s no capacity,” he said of Nova Scotia’s health care system. “An event like this where there are likely to be multiple people requiring hospital admissions or, at the very least, emergency treatment for intoxication or injuries from unsafe behavior, that has greater consequences than just the people in the neighborhood or the student who they hurt themselves.” Halifax Regional Police at a student party on Jennings Street in 2021. (George Sadi/CBC) The crisis in emergency rooms has been building since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but staff shortages combined with fewer family doctors have led to an increased number of people seeking care in an ER. Now, emergency rooms across the province are at their limits. “Emergency services are overwhelmed at the moment,” said Dr George Kovacs, head of the trauma team at Halifax Hospital. “When I say emergency services, we’re talking about police, we’re talking about pre-hospital paramedics and we’re talking about the emergency department.”
Preventable injuries
Kovacs echoed Lees’ concern about street parties taking scarce services away from other emergencies. “Our job is, and always will be, to care for those who need our services who are sick and injured. And we’re not there to judge, we’re there to care for them. But a lot of it is preventable.” He expects to see emergency rooms filled with people who have abused substances if the street parties continue. Dalhousie announced earlier this year that it would create a “collaborative framework” to address “high-risk student behavior” in the neighborhood around campus. On Tuesday, an independent report into community engagement with street party culture outlined six recommendations, including improving communication between students, neighbors and other stakeholders and facilitating more formal activities and events around “trouble periods” such as in the fall and St. Patrick’s Day. The report, by the non-profit community organization Inspiring Communities, also recommended placing more waste bins, portable toilets and cheap food in the area to mitigate the damage. Halifax police said thousands of people attended the 2021 Jennings Street Party. (Mark Doiron/Radio-Canada) Dalhousie said it is working with Halifax Regional Police to monitor “unsafe student behavior” ahead of the fall semester. “Dalhousie does not host a sanctioned homecoming event in the fall and does not condone any type of illegal street party,” university spokeswoman Janet Bryson said in an emailed statement. “The university makes significant efforts to proactively monitor and communicate the potential risks of unsafe student behavior on and off campus, as well as through regular audits with HRP.” Halifax Regional Police Const. John MacLeod said in an email that police are currently putting together a pamphlet to “inform students and the public about common offenses and possible consequences.” He added that citizens are encouraged to report any concerns about noise, public nuisance and safety. MacLeod said police are not providing details on operational matters, but HRP will be present in university neighborhoods as students return to “discourage disruptive behaviour”. CBC News reached out to the Dalhousie Students’ Union, but a spokesperson was not available for comment.
