LONDON, ONT. -- Since the pandemic began, the emergency department at Children’s Hospital in London has been swamped dealing with medical cases, including COVID-19 and they're expecting a resurgence.
Dr. Rod Lim, the medical director of the Paediatric Emergency Department, says staff are doing their best to keep pace.
“We've had diagnoses that have been positive in our department and also the complications that everyone hears about with multi-system inflammatory disorders so we're on the look out for both,” Lim says. “We're prepared but it definitely presents its challenges.”
And once the kids get back to school, he expects it to get even busier.
“We're really anticipating in the fall that there's going to be a huge need for kids to be seen because of testing...We're worried that we might get overwhelmed and we really need to be creative about finding spaces to see people and also for them to wait safely.”
Scott Fortnum, the executive director of the Children’s Health Foundation, says while COVID-19 is affecting everyone, the regular children's medical needs are still being dealt with.
“The equipment that comes into the hospital, 100 per cent of it came from donor dollars last year and COVID has increased the need.”
In May, the Children's Health Foundation kicked off a fundraising campaign called Stand By Me. With the need expected to increase, they're hoping Londoners will continue to give.
“We recognized very early in the process that we need to stand by our kids,” Fortnum says. “We need to look after their emotional safety, we have to be able to support the parents.”
Lim says it’s all about helping our kids at a time when they need it the most.
“The needs of children don't change because there's COVID, in fact it amplifies, so it's more expensive to take care of kids with all the protocols we have.”
