Provincial health officials call on hospitals to ready surge capacity plans within 48 hours

The CEO of Ontario Health is calling on hospitals in the province to be ready to activate their surge capacity plans within 48 hours as a spike in COVID-19 cases threatens the health-care system’s ability to care for patients effectively.

In a memo issued to hospital CEO’s on Tuesday, Ontario Health President Matt Anderson said the province has entered a “critical phase” of the pandemic where there is widespread community transmission.

“Our ability to care for patients (COVID and non-COVID alike) is being challenged, so we are asking hospitals to work together, even more, to ensure we can continue to have the bed capacity to care for patients, safely and effectively,” Anderson wrote in the memo.

“With this in mind, I am requesting that, if you have not done so already, hospitals immediately begin working with their regional / sub regional COVID-19 response structures, or incident management systems (IMS), to be prepared to and/or activate surge capacity planning within 48 hours to support efforts across your regions.”

The memo calls for regions in the grey and red levels of the province’s tiered framework – effectively most of the GTA – to ensure at least 10 to 15 per cent surge capacity of staffed adult inpatient beds for COVID-19 within 48 hours.

In an email to CP24, a spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province is monitoring the situation in hospitals closely.

“The situation we are seeing in our hospitals is a reflection of COVID-19 spread in the community. Now more than ever, it is critical that all Ontarians continue to follow public health advice to help stop the spread of the virus. Everyone has a role to play to protect each other and maintain health system capacity,” the statement reads.

“We continue to closely monitor the evolving situation and are committed to working with our partners to ensure there is capacity in hospitals across the province to provide care for any Ontarian requiring hospitalization.”

The memo comes as the province reported 2,275 new cases Tuesday, smashing through its previous single-day record.

It also comes as Intensive Care Units (ICU’s) across Ontario see more patients than at any point in the pandemic so far.

While the arrival of new vaccines have provided some much needed light at the end of the tunnel recently, public health officials have warned that it will take many months to immunize enough people so that COVID-19 no longer poses a major threat to the population. Officials have also warned that hospitals could be overwhelmed and that many people could still die if regular infection prevention measures such as physical distancing, handwashing and refraining from unnecessary gatherings are not followed.

In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Ontario Hospital Association President Anthony Dale said the organization’s board of directors will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss the “imminent risk of overwhelming conditions” at the province’s hospitals due to COVID-19.

Speaking with CP24 Tuesday evening, infectious disease specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawy said the alert to hospitals does not come as a surprise.

“We've been seeing some really big stress points across the GTA. In particular, places like Brampton and Scarborough have been overwhelmed for some time,” he said. “They've sent out distress calls around the city and have been transferring their patients to many different facilities including our own here at the University Health Network.”

Sharkawy said record case numbers, combined with testing targets that fall short of the province’s target indicate that “things are clearly getting worse.”

“We need to be prepared for potentially an onslaught of patients and do whatever we can to have patients who can be safely discharged from the hospital with extra community resources done as expediently as possible and to create a level of preparedness within our critical care units as well that can manage a number of critically ill patients being admitted at any point in the next several days,” Sharkawy said.

He noted that while the situation is serious, those with serious health issues should not refrain from seeking treatment at the hospital.

“Please understand the hospital is still a very safe environment,” Sharkawy said. “I feel very safe here, along with my peers, colleagues co-workers. Please don't delay coming to the hospital. We are prepared, we want to help you, we don't want you to wait until you become too sick for the care that you deserve.”

Speaking with CP24, Ontario Medical Association President Dr. Samantha Hill said she’s not surprised either at the news hospitals are being asked to clear beds, but she said people should realize that the health implications for those who need care could be very real.

“It's going to be exceptionally challenging and not just for the hospitals, but for the patients at large,” Hill said. “We put a moratorium on all non-emergent surgery for the first few months of this pandemic and we saw an immense pandemic deficit of care that resulted after that – cancer surgeries cardiac surgeries, but also a lot of procedures that aren’t surgeries and a lot of medical care that was delayed.

“The results from that are real and tangible. So the idea that we're going to have to do that again and we are going to further reduce people's access to care is something that should really be concerning to all Ontarians right now.”

She said doctors and patients are still catching up from the backlog of care that resulted from the first wave and added that doctors across the province are very concerned by surveys indicating that many people don’t plan to abide by public health guidelines over the holidays.

“I can tell you that none of the nurses, allied health care professionals or doctors right now are interested in being called heroes or heroines; what we're really interested in doing or seeing is that everyone's doing their part to keep everyone safe.”

Hill urged people to “make 2020 the year you stay home for the holidays.”

“You don't want to be part of the reason that one of your loved ones get sick, you don't want to be part of the reason that someone else's loved ones get sick.”