Hamilton hospitals out of capacity as province plans reopening
The city reported 10 pandemic deaths in two days as Hamilton continues to be a COVID hot spot.
Hospitals transferred 12 patients out of an area that covers Hamilton, Burlington, Niagara, Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk from Jan. 9 to 19.
As the province announced reopening will start Jan. 31, Hamilton showed significant strain Thursday in a number of key metrics being used to determine when it's safe to return to indoor dining, gyms and events with large crowds.
First and foremost, the province is watching the ability of the health-care system to care for those with severe illness, said Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore.
Both Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare described the city's hospitals this week as being in a precarious" state, implementing extraordinary measures to maintain critical services.
They are struggling on three fronts, starting with admitting more COVID patients in January than at any other time in the pandemic.
Hamilton's hospitals were caring for 277 COVID patients Thursday, including 39 in the intensive care unit (ICU).
The ICUs are full at St. Joseph's and over occupancy at HHS. Hamilton General and Juravinski hospitals have more patients than funded beds on the wards. In addition, they're out of a key COVID drug.
We continue to face pressures in some of our hot spot hospitals," Ontario Health CEO Matthew Anderson said.
Ontario hospitals transferred more than 100 patients last week as they spread out the COVID surge between them. Ten of those patients were sent from this area to other hospitals in Ontario West, which is a massive health region stretching from Burlington to Windsor and from Niagara to Northern Bruce Peninsula.
At least, two more patients were transferred this week to bring the area total to 12.
The second strain on the system is the high number of staff self-isolating - 653 as of Thursday. While it's down from 1,037 on Monday, it's still high enough for the hospitals to require drastic measures to keep essential services running.
Physicians were redeployed to help nurses, retired staff have been brought back, vacations paused and non-urgent care ramped down. The West End Urgent Care Clinic closed for up to eight weeks and the King Campus urgent care reduced hours to 4 to 10 p.m.
On Tuesday, HHS brought in an accelerated return to work for staff who have COVID. They no longer have to wait 10 days if they are asymptomatic or have resolving symptoms. They must also be fully vaccinated. In addition, they have to provide one negative PCR test or two negative rapid antigen tests taken 24 hours apart.
The third pressure on local hospitals is the record 20 outbreaks they have between them involving more than 190 cases.
HHS issued a terse statement Thursday that gave no opinion on the timing of reopening or claims by Premier Doug Ford that Ontario's hospital system can manage the challenges ahead in the coming weeks.
We will continue to abide by provincial direction and do our part to safely care for patients throughout the rest of the pandemic," said HHS.
St. Joseph's provided no comment on restrictions dropping on Jan. 31, Feb. 21 and March 14.
While businesses will reopen, paused hospital care will not. Non-urgent surgeries, procedures, diagnostics and ambulatory care were left out of reopening plans to preserve hospital capacity.
We don't expect the peak of admissions to ICU to happen until about mid-February," said Health Minister Christine Elliott. As soon as we can see the numbers are going down ... then we'll be able to get back on track."
Another key metric being tracked is the per cent of tests coming back positive. Ford said provincewide it has dropped from 40 per cent to 15 per cent.
But Hamilton hasn't seen nearly as big of a decrease. The number of tests coming back positive sat at nearly 27 per cent Thursday, down from just over 31 per cent Jan. 14.
In addition, the province is looking at outbreaks, particularly in long-term care.
Hamilton has 91 ongoing outbreaks including 40 in seniors' homes. The largest ongoing outbreak is at Heritage Green Nursing Home in Stoney Creek, where 95 have been infected. There are also nine cases at its retirement home.
Another large outbreak is at the Wellington Nursing Home on the central Mountain, where 64 have tested positive and two have died.
Group homes, assisted living and communal living account for 21 of the outbreaks, while shelters are another eight. There is also one outbreak at a rehabilitation centre and two at jails, including the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre where 81 have been infected.
The chief medical officer of health says he's reviewing the high number of COVID deaths reported in Ontario over the last two days. Ten of those deaths were reported in Hamilton on Wednesday and Thursday to bring the pandemic toll here to 447. Of those deaths, five were men and five were women. Four were in their 80s, four in their 70s, one in their 60s and one in their 50s.
More than 96 per cent of Hamilton's pandemic deaths have been among those age 60 and older. Eight Hamilton residents in their 50s have died of COVID.
I hate talking statistically about death and I know each individual is a member of someone's family," said Moore.
Joanna Frketich is a health reporter at The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com