THUNDER BAY - Hospitals in Southern Ontario are reaching capacity due to record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions and are being forced to send patients elsewhere.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has not been asked to accept any COVID-19 patients from Southern Ontario at this time, but president and CEO, Dr. Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, said it is prepared should the need arise.
“We haven’t seen that but we certainly work daily with the critical care command table provincially who identify where patient care will be delivered depending on the situation various ICUs find themselves in,” she said.
“We haven’t seen that come this far into the north at this point in time. We are prepared. We do have expansion plans in place for our intensive care unit to ensure both our community and region are cared for should the need arise, as well as we are there for the rest of the province should the need arise to transfer patients to our health sciences centre.”
On Thursday, the province of Ontario reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period at 4,736. Hospitalizations also climbed to a new record at 1,932 and there are 659 people being treated in intensive care units.
At the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, there are 14 patients admitted with COVID-19, five of which are in the ICU. Hospital capacity is currently 78 per cent.
Hospitals in Southern Ontario were ordered by the provincial government on Monday to ramp down elective and non-emergent care in an effort to maintain capacity.
“We have not been having to ramp down our elective or other urgent care in our community,” Crocker Ellacott said. “The north was preserved with respect to continued activity. We are ready to ramp down should the need arise so we do have additional capacity we could make available at the ready should it be required.”
Crocker Ellacott added that nearly all 3,800 hospital staff members have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Of hospital workers who have consented, 100 per cent of consenting staff have received the vaccination, which results in 90 per cent of all of our staff have been vaccinated,” she said. “That is an incredibly high number. We have seen a really significant positive uptake for vaccinations at the health sciences centre, so we are really proud to see that occur.”
The COVID-19 vaccine is voluntary for all health care workers.
