‘A monumental emergency’: Hamilton Health Sciences shutters urgent care clinic, operating room as hospitals brace for surge in COVID patients

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) is taking unprecedented steps in response to a crippling third wave of COVID-19 that has rapidly upended local health-care systems across Ontario.

The sweeping measures - which include the temporary closure of an entire urgent care clinic - came as the province's external COVID-19 Science Advisory Table delivered sobering projections Friday.

A worst-case scenario could see new cases in Ontario crest at more than 30,000 a day by early June unless strict measures are taken, the modelling suggests. Daily cases could reach as high as 15,000 under moderate measures, while strong measures in effect for at least six weeks could contain daily cases below 10,000.

Even if public health measures are maintained or strengthened, the projections say Ontario could see between 1,500 to 2,000 COVID patients in intensive-care units by mid-May - nearly triple the present numbers.

It is a grim reality that has already shown shades of itself in Hamilton.

As of Friday, the ICUs at HHS were at near capacity with 102 beds out of total 108 filled.

The provincial projections signal to a monumental emergency" the likes of which local hospitals have never before experienced, said Dr. Bram Rochwerg, an ICU physician at Juravinski Hospital.

This is absolutely unprecedented compared to the first two waves," Rochwerg said in a telephone interview Friday. I've been a practising ICU doctor for seven years, and this is something that I never anticipated having to deal with - in Hamilton or Canada."

The majority of COVID patients in the ICU at Juravinski are between 50 and 60 years old, said Rochwerg, a demographic that has been particularly hard hit as variants surge in the community and seniors in long-term-care or retirement homes receive vaccinations.

And hospitalized patients could yet get younger, their illnesses yet more severe, added Rochwerg.

You look at the case numbers and the trajectory ... we're on this up, up, up, up pathway - and where are we going to be in a week? Where are we going to be in two weeks?" he said.

I keep watching those numbers waiting for the plateau, and it has yet to come."

The high rate of infection - and what that does to ICU capacity and staffing levels - was the impetus behind HHS' announced measures Friday.

As of early next week, the health network will:

• Temporarily close the West End Urgent Care Clinic on Main Street West (its COVID-19 assessment centre will remain open);

• Scale back capacity at the Regional Rehabilitation Centre on Wellington Street North by more than 50 per cent;

• Temporarily close the operating rooms at the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby; and

• Reduce ambulatory care volumes (outpatient care without admission to hospital).

It is unclear how long the closures will remain in effect.

These measures, while unwelcome by all of us, are necessary to respond this third and most severe wave of the pandemic," said HHS in a press release. To date, approximately 40 staff have been redeployed to help care for those during the third wave."

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com