Paediatric numbers still on the low end for Niagara hospitals
Published November 11, 2022 at 9:41 am
With paediatric hospitals being overwhelmed with patients, a directive from Ontario Health came out last week, asking regular hospitals to admit young patients (13 and under) to ease the burden.
Niagara Health, like others, complied with the request but so far, no hospital in the region has seen an uptick of paediatric patients.
The Province made the request because paediatric hospital quite simply ran out of space. Critical Care Services Ontario’s daily census shows there are 122 children in pediatric ICUs yesterday (November 10) up from 111 the day before.
Ontario has a total of 112 intensive care beds for children.
That said, Dr. Karim Ali, Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control and Director, Division of Infectious Diseases at Niagara Health said he was expecting higher flu and respiratory infection numbers this year, particularly with the youngest of patients.
It’s still too early into flu season to ascertain what kind of numbers with which the Niagara hospitals may have to deal.
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