Hamilton’s overcrowded hospitals postpone care and redeploy staff
Hamilton's hospitals are implementing extraordinary measures" as the number of COVID patients and self-isolating staff continues to increase.
There's no doubt this is a system that is under stress and we are very concerned about where things are headed," said Rob MacIsaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS).
Hamilton's hospitals had 752 staff self-isolating Tuesday - up from 742 the day before.
At the same time, the number of COVID patients climbed to 230 from 220. Of those, 36 were in the intensive care unit (ICU) compared to 33 Tuesday.
The hospitals also have a record 13 ongoing outbreaks.
We're monitoring this, concerned about the growth that we're seeing in terms of the cases that are coming in," said Melissa Farrell, CEO of St. Joseph's Healthcare.
The fifth wave has seen more patients on the wards as opposed to the ICU. However, Farrell cautioned that anyone admitted to hospital is quite sick.
In addition, the hospitals already have more patients than funded beds. Juravinski Hospital had an occupancy rate of 116 per cent Tuesday, while Hamilton General was at 105 per cent.
Both HHS and St. Joseph's say they can't open up more beds.
Given how quickly the numbers are rising, we're all worried about the ICU," said MacIsaac. If those numbers continue to rise, I think all parts of the hospital will feel that strain."
Adding to the overcrowding is waits to be discharged to seniors' homes.
If long-term care and retirement homes are under strain they have limited ability to accept patients from hospitals so everything starts to get backed up," said MacIsaac.
The logjam is most visible in emergency departments, with the Hamilton Paramedic Service reporting it lost 138 hours to off-load delays in a 24-hour period that ended at 7 a.m. Jan 4. It comes as the service has 29 of its 400 staff self-isolating.
The extraordinary measures implemented to shore up the hospitals largely involve ramping down care that isn't cancer, pediatric, urgent or emergent and redeploying the staff.
We know this will be very hard for people who have been waiting to access care who will likely get bumped as a result," said Farrell.
MacIsaac said the hospitals are considering bringing back staff who are self-isolating but haven't tested positive for COVID as well as recalling retired workers.
Terminations due to vaccine policies haven't been a factor so far in the staffing crisis as St. Joseph's hasn't fired any workers and HHS has let 14 go so far.
Joanna Frketich is a health reporter at The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com