LHSC prepares to transfer patients to other hospitals as Omicron-fueled capacity crunch worsens
Stretched to its limit, the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) plans to ask smaller hospitals in the region for relief.
“The hospitals are at the maximal stress right now,” explains LHSC’s Dr. Adam Dukelow. “Hopefully the maximum stress.”
LHSC operates both University Hospital and Victoria Hospital in London.
Currently caring for 161 COVID patients, 24 in critical care, LHSC will create space by transferring patients to other hospitals in order to preserve its ability to offer highly specialized cardiac and neuroscience care.
“In the next 24 hours some patients will move, likely less than 10, but enough to create space,” says Dr. Dukelow.
Either COVID patients, or patients admitted for other reasons, will be transferred based on what other hospitals are able to accept.
On Tuesday, the Middlesex-London Health Unit indicated that the Omicron wave appears to be plateauing.
Corresponding hospitalizations can peak more than a week after spread begins to wane in the community.
During previous waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals in St. Thomas, Strathroy, Stratford, and Hanover have been among those to accept patients from LHSC, but now they’re also stretched thin and facing uncertainty about the number of patients that will be admitted in the coming days.
“It’s a matter of who is stretched more,” admits Dr. Dukelow. “Some hospitals may have just one or two beds that they can help us out with, it’s a matter of maximizing capacity in the system.”
A temporary field hospital inside the Agriplex had 144 beds, but after sitting idle for a year and a half it was decommissioned in early December.
Dr. Dukelow explains that over the course of the pandemic other strategies, like transferring patients between hospitals, developed as better options to address a capacity crunch.
He believes the Agriplex site wouldn’t have been a solution to the current situation.
“We can actually stand up more beds within the walls of the London Health Sciences Centre that have all the equipment, like oxygen, of a standard hospital.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
World seeing near breakdown of international law amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Amnesty says
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
Photographer alleges he was forced to watch Megan Thee Stallion have sex and was unfairly fired
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
U.S. Senate passes bill forcing TikTok's parent company to sell or face ban, sends to Biden for signature
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
Wildfire southwest of Peace River spurs evacuation order
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with big bipartisan vote
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.