Over-capacity McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton part of strain in Ontario pediatric ICUs

By

Published November 11, 2022 at 12:47 pm

The children’s hospital in Hamilton has a level of overcrowding that ranks as alarming for general hospitals, and a local member of provincial parliament is asking the province to intervene.

The world-renowned McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) is, at last report, running a 140-per-cent occupancy, which requires opening beds that are not funded by the province. It was at 135% last week. There is also a chance this will continue unabated, since the City of Hamilton respiratory disease dashboards shows that influenza transmission in the community is “moderate and increasing.” The city also says that COVID-19 activity is “high and increasing.”

Wait times at MCH for children to be seen is in the six-hour range, Hamilton Centre MPP Monique Taylor (Ontario New Democratic Party) charged in a letter to Health Minister Sylvia Jones, a senior minister in the PC Party of Ontario government.

The above-seasonal cases of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is also leading to pediatric centres across Ontario, including their ICUs, being inundated with young patients. On Thursday, Critical Care Services Ontario’s daily census showed there were 122 children in pediatric ICUs — 10 more than the actual number of beds. Multiple reports this week have stated that child ICU patients in Hamilton are being moved to adult ICUs, away from doctors, registered nurses and nurse practitioners who were schooled in pediatric care.

Masking mandates?

There is no masking mandate in the province. Local action, ostensibly, is possible under Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act. But Hamilton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson stated Thursday, “Any measures would need to be introduced from the provincial level.”

One of Dr. Richardson’s counterparts in another part of the province whose children’s hospital is strained, though, has gone on the record as stating that “mandating” is in consideration there. Eastern Ontario MOH Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, whose bailiwick includes CHEO (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario), told CBC Ottawa on Thursday that the his office was “looking at scenarios where we would look at mandating or strongly recommending masks in indoor settings and crowded indoor settings.”

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis added, “It makes a lot of sense to mask up right now.”

Taylor, in her letter to the PCPO health minister, said that MCH is “cut(ting) planned surgeries in order to accommodate the influx of new patients.” She also claimed that the wider Hamilton community is being affected by the strain.

“I am asking you (Minister Jones) to support McMaster and deploy resources, including staff, to the hospital in order to support the patients” Taylor writes. “Hamilton continues to have one of the most crowded emergency rooms in the province, and this is our hurting our community.”

Social media-wise, Jones’ latest tweet about healthcare staffing focused on the province’s plan to onboard more internationally educated nurses in order to improve staffing levels.

“Our plan is working,” stated Jones.

The message appeared to get ratio-ed, in Twitter argot. It had 220 replies to 38 likes as of 12:20 p.m. on Friday.

Hamilton has two MPPs on each side of the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park in downtown Toronto.

Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Neil Lumsden (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek) and Donna Skelly (Flamborough—Glanbrook) are part of the governing PCPO.

Taylor and Sandy Shaw (Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas) are part of the opposition New Democrats, whose leadership has been vacant since Hamilton Mayor-elect Andrea Horwath stepped down. Horwath’s move to municipal politics also required vacating her Hamilton Centre seat, which will be filled in a forthcoming byelection.

Last October, Newsweek magazine ranked MCH as the 48th-best children’s hospital in the world, fourth in Canada, and second in Ontario behind world No. 1 SickKids in Toronto.

That ranking came out just before public sector nurses in Ontario were placed under Bill 124 legislation, which took effect the following month. It limits annual pay raises to a well-below-inflation 1 per cent. In the summer, many hospital networks turned to private companies to hire agency nurses. Those nurses are often ones who have left public sector jobs and were getting a highly hourly wage, but the overhead for the healthcare system (and taxpayer) ended up being several times higher since private companies are a middleperson.

— with files from Anthony Urcioli and The Canadian Press

insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising