Hamilton hospitals rescheduling surgeries as COVID patients and staff illnesses surge

By

Published January 18, 2022 at 9:53 am

Hamilton hospitals over capacity respiratory viruses

The latest surge of patients and health care staff battling COVID-19 has led to Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) hospitals rescheduling surgeries and temporarily closing some of their clinics.

HHS president and CEO Rob MacIsaac took to Twitter Tuesday morning to express his regrets.

“Our hospitals have almost no capacity remaining due to the latest surge of COVID patients + high staff illness,” he tweeted. “We are working on several measures to cope with this very challenging situation.”

“Unfortunately, this includes rescheduling some surgeries and temporarily closing some clinics. I know this is hard to hear for the patients and families impacted. Please know we are working as hard as we can to get all services back on track as soon as possible,” added MacIsaac.

He didn’t specify which clinics would be closing in the tweets.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) announced on Monday it would be temporarily reducing the hours of one of its urgent care centres to compensate for staff illnesses and exposed workers that are self-isolating.

MacIsaac, meanwhile, says its hospitals have plans in place to minimize the effects of the virus on its staff.

“We’re maximizing the staffing resources that are available to us and we’re working with our partners across the region to ensure everybody is carrying a reasonably equal share of the load. Thank you for your patience during this Omicron wave,” he concluded.

Hamilton General Hospital is operating at 105 per cent occupancy and Juravinski Hospital is at 114 per cent. HHS says its ICUs are at 101 per cent while 492 staff members are in self-isolation due to COVID-19 exposure.

St. Joe’s says its hospital is operating at 91 per cent occupancy and its ICU is completely full. Meanwhile, 184 St Joe’s staff are self-isolating after being exposed to the virus.

insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising