As hospitals across Ontario struggle to keep up with the onslaught of COVID patients, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is on standby to help.
CEO Lori Marshall says it’s CK’s good work through the pandemic which leaves the hospital in a position to lend a hand when called upon.
“We have done well in Chatham-Kent, right now we only have one patient who is COVID-positive in hospital and they are not in the ICU,” Marshall says. “I was just in another forum where Dr. Colby was talking about the number of deaths we’ve had in our community, much much lower than other communities. It has been our good work and vigilance as a community that has resulted in this and in people being as healthy as possible through this pandemic.”
However, Marshall says while the local numbers remain relatively low, we have to remember how dire the situation is in other regions.
There are well over 600 cases in intensive care across the province, many of which are concentrated in the GTA and Golden Horseshoe.
The CKHA and hospitals across Ontario began ramping down elective and non-urgent surgeries on Monday to free up space for the potential movement of patients.
“We know that our ICU beds or our general medical beds may be required for the province, either a direct transfer from the GTA or what could also happen is they could move patients to London, for example, and then move some patients from London to us,” Marshall explains. “We need to be at the ready in order to make sure that we’re saving lives across our province.”
Marshall says the only way to get through the third wave is to do it together, supporting each other and small businesses, and maintaining health and safety precautions.