(Photo of a COVID ward courtesy of Erie Shores Healthcare)(Photo of a COVID ward courtesy of Erie Shores Healthcare)
Windsor

Area hospitals issue dire warning to the public as COVID-19 cases soar

All three hospitals in Windsor-Essex are begging the public to carefully consider their actions as daily case counts mount.

Residents are being asked to push through their COVID-19 fatigue, and wash their hands, maintain social distancing, and avoid unnecessary trips outside of their homes.

In a rare memo to the community, health officials said, "the scenario that our Windsor-Essex region residents have seen on TV taking place in other jurisdictions around the world, is showing signs of occurring in our area in the province."

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At Windsor Regional Hospital, Chief of Staff Doctor Wassim Saad told BlackburnNews.com if the community does not rally to flatten the curve once more, we could see the kind of desperation Italy and Spain saw earlier in the pandemic.

"Our healthcare resources are going to be overwhelmed. Our ICUs are going to be over capacity, and we won't have places to admit patients in our region," he said.

Outbreaks at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus, and at the rehabilitation unit at Hotel-Dieu Grace have significantly reduced the number of beds available. There are also 27 COVID-19 patients in the hospital right now, seven of whom are in intensive care.

The memo said patients in Windsor are already being diverted to the hospital in Leamington and could be moved to the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance if bed capacity does not ease up. Saad added hospitals in London and Sarnia are filling up, so unless something gives, some patients could theoretically be sent to Hamilton for care.

The field hospital at Windsor Regional Hospital. (Photo provided by Windsor Regional Hospital) (Photo provided by Windsor Regional Hospital)

Throughout the pandemic, hospital CEOs have said the field hospital at St. Clair College's Sportsplex could re-open, but Saad said that would not resolve the issue.

"So the field hospital can deliver oxygen to them. We can give them medication, but we're not able to do x-rays or imaging on a day-to-day basis," he said. "We're not able to provide a higher level of ventilatory support. It is not an ideal solution for managing the sickest patients with COVID."

Patients who are not sick with COVID-19 could be severely impacted too. Health officials stated scheduled surgeries and procedures could be cancelled to make space for emergency and other urgent cases.

Staff at all three hospitals are also exhausted. The outbreak on the seventh floor at the Ouellette Campus has put 90 staff out of commission, leaving the rest to pick up the slack.

"They've been going non-stop since March and a lot of them are breaking their breaking point," Saad said.

At Erie Shores Healthcare, CEO Kristen Kennedy is seeing the same level of exhaustion. She said her organization is offering what support it can.

Erie Shores Healthcare CEO Kristin Kennedy. (Photo courtesy of Erie Shores Healthcare) Erie Shores Healthcare CEO Kristin Kennedy. (Photo courtesy of Erie Shores Healthcare)

"Employee assistance programs, spiritual care, partnerships with Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare for mental health wellness," are among the initiatives she said her hospital has implemented or ramped up in the past few weeks.

"Regardless of the myths being spread about this virus online, and in media reports, one thing is certain: the higher number of COVID-19 positive cases, the higher the likelihood of more and more cases requiring emergency and critical care," continued the memo. "The lives of many individuals in our community are depending on your help."

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