No new hospital beds for Hamilton as other COVID hot spots get aid
Hamilton appears to be left out of provincial funding for extra hospital beds going to other COVID hot spots.
It's the second time the city has been passed over for COVID aid going to other areas in the province's grey zone - Hamilton also missed out on the accelerated vaccination program for long-term care.
The omission comes as the city reported 102 new cases of COVID on Monday and Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health warned the province now has community transmission of the fast-spreading COVID variant.
It's also at the same time a shortage of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has caused Hamilton to scale back its vaccination rollout.
Meanwhile, the latest data available shows nearly as many Hamilton hospital workers have been vaccinated as long-term-care (LTC) staff at a time when seniors' homes are supposed to be the priority.
The risk for LTC staff is so very much higher," said Colin Furness, infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Toronto. I don't want to say that acute-care staff have an easy time ... But in terms of public safety and transmission prevention, there is no contest, LTC staff are vastly more important."
The city reported a record number of 44 outbreaks Monday with 18 of them being in seniors' homes.
Hamilton's medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson pointed out the city's hospitals have also been struggling with outbreaks. St. Joseph's Healthcare has two while Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) has seven, including a new one on the second floor of the temporary hospital at 150 King St. E in Effort Square, where two patients are infected.
Other new outbreaks declared Jan. 17 after two staff tested positive include Fan-Tastic Scholars Child Learning Centre on Main Street West and Capability Support Services, which helps seniors and those with disabilities live independently.
But overall there is no comparison to the devastation of the second wave in Hamilton's seniors' homes. Current outbreaks alone account for more than 600 infections - more than 250 of them staff - and 80 deaths.
One new death was reported Monday that appeared to be from Grace Villa long-term-care home on the east Mountain, where 44 have now died in the city's deadliest pandemic outbreak. The death of the senior aged 80 or more brings the city's pandemic toll to 220.
The current outbreaks in hospitals account for 108 cases, including 53 staff and three deaths. However, 47 of the hospital cases are at the satellite site, which has its own staff and cares for patients ready for discharge, primarily seniors waiting for long-term care or other community services.
Niagara Region Public Health has consistently said that long-term-care home and retirement home residents should be our priority for vaccination since 80 per cent of deaths from COVID-19 have been among those residents," Niagara public health said in a statement. With any leftover doses of vaccine ... we are vaccinating staff and essential caregivers to begin creating a protected circle of caregivers around these vulnerable residents."
In Hamilton, about 4,300 long-term-care and high-risk retirement home staff had been vaccinated as of Jan. 14. But so had 4,000 hospital workers.
Richardson stressed the hospital workers vaccinated in Hamilton are on the front line - after reports have surfaced that hospital staff who don't care for patients have been vaccinated in other cities.
We know for sure our front-line health-care workers, particularly in our COVID units and our ICUs, that they're at higher risk of exposure," said Richardson.
Neither public health nor HHS could provide an updated breakdown Monday on who got the 13,400 doses given out to date. With the scaling back of the vaccination program, only staff, residents and essential caregivers from seniors' homes will be getting vaccinated going forward until there is better supply.
Hamilton infectious disease researcher Dr. Mark Loeb said those at highest risk should be the initial primary targets for vaccination. But emphasized what matters most is getting as many people vaccinated as the city can.
The key message about the rollout is to get it done as rapidly as possible," said Loeb.
He said it's estimated 70 to 90 per cent of people need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, but the exact number is uncertain.
The province is a far cry from that threshold as the B117 variant is spreading in the province, with 15 cases so far and more expected.
This is concerning to all of us especially as the data indicates that this variant may be spread 56 per cent more easily," said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the province's associate medical officer. It could very well become the predominant strain."
The worry about a rapid increase in cases comes as Hamilton's hospitals are already showing signs of strain, with Hamilton General listed Jan. 8 among the province's one-quarter of hospitals with no ICU beds left. Juravinski Hospital was with another one-quarter that had two beds or less.
The number of available ICU beds at HHS changes daily, but we are currently near or at capacity," HHS said in a statement.
Premier Doug Ford announced $125 million on Monday to add over 500 hospital beds in hot spots Toronto, Windsor, Durham, Kingston and Ottawa, as well as a new hospital in Vaughan.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday that the primary criteria" focused on the hospital's capacity to add beds and the availability of health-care workers to staff them."
Neither HHS nor St. Joseph's answered questions Monday about whether they have space and staff for more beds.
A request was made on Friday to indicate if we had surge bed space and if yes, how much - that was due at 11 a.m. today," St. Joseph's said in a statement Monday. We completed this and submitted by the deadline."
Richardson said some cities may need the beds more acutely as they have already had to transfer patients to hospitals in other areas but overall absolutely we want to see that we're all able to move forward together."
The Star reported that Burlington's Joseph's Brant Hospital had patients transferred from Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. Joseph Brant did not answer questions on Monday.
Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com