The intensive care unit at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is quickly filling up.
CEO Lori Marshall says the ICU as a whole is over 80% full.
“This is why we continue to stress for people that we need to make sure we’re able to respond not only to COVID positive patients who might need that kind of resource, but other kinds of patients whether it’s a heart attack, whether it’s a stroke, whether it’s a car accident,” Marshall says. “This is why we need to make sure that we’re preserving care and the services and the facilities and equipment and the staff that are available to be able to respond in those situations.”
Despite rising case numbers at hospitals in Windsor and London earlier this month, only one patient from Windsor has been transferred to Chatham-Kent for care.
“We continue to make sure those 20 beds that we received (through provincial surge funding) that are a regional resource are available for access for anyone in our region, whether it’s Windsor or whether it’s Leamington or Sarnia or ourselves who need those beds, they are available for admission.”
As it stands, there is just one COVID patient being treated at the Health Alliance right now on a ventilator.