Coronavirus: Fewer than 5 patients transferred to Kingston ICUs from other hospitals

Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) says fewer than five patients were transferred to Kingston General Hospital’s intensive care unit from other regions in Ontario dealing with hospital capacity issues due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s something KHSC has been waiting for since the beginning of the year, when Ontario Public Health issued a memo to the province’s hospital CEOs, asking them to prepare to lend a hand if needed.

Unlike other regions in Ontario, Kingston’s case counts have remained relatively low, with active cases dropping down to just 17 Monday.

“Kingston has weathered the pandemic extremely well,” said Renate Ilse, vice-president of patient care at KHSC.

“We like to think that it’s our good work, but it’s also a little bit of luck, so I think our colleagues in Toronto have not been as fortunate and anything that we can do to help balance the load — we work very carefully with the government to do just that,” she said for a previous interview with Global News.

Over the weekend, Dr. Chris Lazongas, an intensivist with Scarborough Health Network (SHN) tweeted about capacity issues at his hospital.

“Now sending ICU patients to Kingston (as soon as we can secure a helicopter). This (is) absolutely NOT our usual winter surge,” he wrote.

1:55 Kingston prepares for out-of-region COVID-19 patients

KHSC officials say less than a handful of patients have been transferred to Kingston so far, but refused to give an exact number, citing privacy concerns. It also would not comment on where the patients were transferred from or how they were brought to Kingston.

“Due to privacy laws, we cannot disclose private patient information, including their status or where they are being transferred from,” KHSC said.

The hospital organization said it will test all incoming patients for COVID-19, and all patients who come from out-of-region will be quarantined for two weeks.

1:46 Ontario Premier Ford says ‘no reason’ to offer paid sick leave program

“As for all of our patients, if a family member or visitor fails the geographic portion of our screening questions (i.e. If they reside in or recently visited a red zone area), they must submit a special request to be granted permission to visit their loved one. Each request will be considered on a case-by-case basis,” KHSC said.

According to KHSC, the province has asked for about 30 per cent of Kingston General Hospital’s ICU capacity for transfer patients.

In total, Kingston has around 65 ICU beds, but there are plans for expansion if the need arises.

— With files from Global News’ Nick Westoll, Morganne Campbell and Mike Postovit