The fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the Lakeshore General Hospital hard.
Two operating rooms are shuttered, while many elective surgeries are cancelled and postponed to future dates.
The health care crisis facing the hospital and its officials is due to surging COVID-19 admissions.
Dr. Robin Nathanson, the hospital’s assistant medical chief in the emergency department, tells Global News the hospital anticipates another 11 COVID-19 patients will be admitted to the Lakeshore in the near future from other hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Lakeshore is having to reopen its dedicated COVID-19 ICU ward.
“Our volumes are at what they were pre-COVID or even higher than pre-COVID and we have COVID to deal with on top of it. So this is going to be an extremely challenging fourth wave,” Dr. Nathanson said.
Many staff members are being transferred to the COVID-19 ICU ward.
The COVID-19 patient influx combined with a nursing shortage is challenging staff to provide the critical care that all patients require when they arrive.
No emergency surgeries that are non COVID-19 related are being cancelled, but many other operations are being delayed.
“These are people who need a vast variety of very important symptomatic, or otherwise, surgeries that are now unfortunately being bumped,” Dr. Nathanson said.
- What is a halal mortgage? How interest-free home financing works in Canada
- Capital gains changes are ‘really fair,’ Freeland says, as doctors cry foul
- Ontario doctors offer solutions to help address shortage of family physicians
- Canada will take bigger economic hit than U.S. if Trump wins election: report
The lack of staff, especially nurses, continues to take a toll on Quebec’s health-care system, including at the Lakeshore.
“We need the next generation to start going to school to give us a hand but right now it’s not an attractive field to work in,” Kristina Hoare, Nurses’ Union Spokesperson, told Global News.
More than 84 per cent of Quebec’s eligible population is fully vaccinated, but the 18 to 29 year old age group lags behind.
The non-vaccinated young adult population is getting more and more sick with the highly transmissible Delta variant on the rise.
“In the past week I admitted three patients, all in their 20s and 30s, to the COVID ward for oxygen and various other treatments, ” Dr. Nathanson said.
As the fourth wave continues, there is no indication when the two operating rooms will reopen and most elective surgeries can resume.
Comments