Officials with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance say they’re prepared should there be an influx of COVID-19 patients.
Chief Nursing Executive Lisa Northcott says there are now two patients being treated for the virus in the ICU.
“Our overall occupancy is around 70%, which means we do have beds available if we see a surge in patients, we feel that we’re prepared.”
However, if there is a jump in COVID patients needing treatment, the hospital has a contingency plan in place.
“We actually have plans where we can open more intensive care beds,” Northcott says. “We feel that our plans would allow us to surge up quite a bit in the event we have patients present that need that level of care.”
Northcott says CKHA can also lean on other health care facilities in the region, if need be.
Public Health data, which indicates just one COVID case in hospital, only includes Chatham-Kent residents. The CKHA reports on the total number of patients in care, regardless of where they live.