The head of Windsor Regional Hospital says both campuses are at capacity because of influenza outbreaks at long-term care homes across the region.
"It seems like someone flicked a switch right at the end of last year and the start of this year," says CEO David Musyj.
As of Friday, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported outbreaks at Amica, Royal Oak, Iler Lodge, Leamington Mennonite Home, Chartwell Oak Park, Harrowood Seniors Community, Huron Lodge, Sun Parlour, Season's Lakeshore and Lifetimes on the River.
Primarily, the diagnosis for those patients is pneumonia.
The trouble is, it is still early in the influenza season, which typically peaks in March.
Musyj says the hospital has an escalation plan if the situation becomes worse in the months ahead.
"Then you start cancelling scheduled surgeries, not emergency surgeries, just scheduled surgeries," he says.
Musyj stresses the hospital is not at that point yet.
Right now, it is working with the Erie St.Clair LHIN for help, and Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare to find accommodations for patients who aren't sick enough to be in the hospital, but can't return to their long-term care homes because the outbreak there is ongoing.
Windsor-Essex isn't the only region with a bug either. The head of the Ontario Hospital Association, Anthony Dale, has sent the provincial government a letter stating that it is a problem across the province.
"Arguably, we could have taken the OHA's name off of that, put our name at the bottom of it, and signed it," comments Musyj.
The letter also calls for financial relief for hospitals.
"It primarily has to do with the fact our funding formula doesn't catch up for two years, so the activity we're doing today, technically we don't get paid for it until two years from now," says Musyj.