The president and CEO of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance says she is worried about a surge of COVID-19 patients in intensive care across the province.
The Ontario government reported on Thursday there are now 150 COVID-19 patients in intensive care across the province, which crosses a key threshold that projections have indicated could lead to cancelled surgeries. Two of the cases are in the ICU at the hospital in Chatham, but only one of them is a local resident.
CKHA President and CEO Lori Marshall said the hospital is at 70 per cent occupancy right now. In the event conditions worsen, Marshall said there's an operational plan to deal with a surge in COVID-19 patients. Marshall said the Chatham hospital has a designated pod in a medical unit to deal with COVID-19 patients that don't require ICU care. Marshall added that the Chatham hospital is a provincial asset and is open to patient transfers if necessary.
"We don't believe the entire unit needs to be designated from that perspective but certainly we can grow to serve the needs of the community as things might unfold," said Marshall. "It is possible that at some stage we might anticipate that patients could be transferred to Chatham-Kent from other jurisdictions."
Marshall said CKHA and surrounding hospitals are closely monitoring the situation and she urges people to follow proper COVID-19 health and safety procedures.
"This is what is going to help keep us all healthy and keep the capacity there and available to support people in the event people need hospitalization for anything," Marshall said.
CKHA cancelled several non-emergency and elective surgeries in April to open up more beds and free up staff for the field hospital in case they were needed for an influx of COVID-19 patients. It took until September to get surgical procedures back to normal at CKHA.