As the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance accepts transfers of patients from COVID hotspots across Ontario, CEO Lori Marshall wants to reassure area residents the hospital remains a safe place for care.
Earlier this week, two patients were brought in from overcrowded hospitals in the GTA, and more are expected in the days and weeks ahead.
While Marshall can’t disclose whether either patient is battling COVID-19, she says the usual precautions remain in place.
“This is a very controlled environment when we’re moving patients who may be COVID-positive to our hospital, which is different than any one one of us maybe casually driving somewhere, going shopping, where the levels of personal protective equipment, the social distancing, and all those kinds of things aren’t necessarily in place.”
Marshall says it’s expected any patients brought to CKHA could be COVID-positive, and the hospital is prepared for that.
“We also have to recognize that the individuals who would be transported by land ambulance need to be stable enough that they can be transported,” Marshall says. “That’s over three hours in land ambulance. But they certainly could be COVID-positive or not.”
Neither of the two patients transferred to CKHA this week are being treated in the ICU.
On Tuesday, Marshall said ICU capacity at the Health Alliance was sitting at 50%, while the hospital’s overall acute, medical, surgical, and critical care beds are 83% filled.
