Peterborough Regional Health Centre says it has received 52 patient transfers from other regions over the past two months — including one from Manitoba.
In a media briefing Tuesday, Dr. Lynn Mikula, the hospital’s chief medical executive and chief of staff, reports there have been 76 patient transfers total since Jan. 1, with 52 of them (or 68 per cent) arriving since April 1.
Of the 52 transfers, one was from Manitoba.
“We may still receive more from that province,” she said. “We are certainly ready and willing to help out if they need us to take more patients.”
However, she noted the number of patient transfers has “decreased significantly” over the past two weeks as COVID-19 cases are stabilizing across Ontario. Likewise, the number of critically ill patients in the hospital’s ICU has also gradually decreased but the hospital is still maintaining 12 additional beds in case there is a surge of COVID-19 cases.
As of Tuesday morning, the hospital reported six patients with COVID-19 and no additional patient transfers were scheduled.
“But we continue to stand ready to support our hospital partners in any way we can in the days and weeks ahead,” she said
Non-urgent surgeries
Mikula said the hospital is also ramping up its levels of non-urgent care for patients after Ontario rescinded the order to ramp down to create critical care capacity.
“Last week, we provided approximately 50 per cent of our normal volume of non-urgent procedures and this week we are moving to ramp up to 75 per cent,” Mikula said. “We expect to be up to 100 per cent in the coming weeks.”
The hospital is placing an emphasis on outpatient surgeries or procedures that could potentially send a patient home within 24 to 48 hours of a procedure.
“As in the past, we are taking an equity lens — we are looking at people who have been waiting the longest; people who have the most urgent indications for surgery; people whose conditions have deteriorated while they’ve been waiting,” she said. “And we’ll be working to get them in.”
The hospital also began a COVID-19 vaccination clinic last week and is offering a first dose vaccine to anyone age 12 and older.
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