As hospital beds fill up, so is the level of concern amongst officials at the Health Alliance.
CEO Lori Marshall says ICU beds are now 100% filled and the hospital’s medical, surgical, and critical care beds are at 99% capacity.
As of the latest update on Thursday, CKHA is treating 16 COVID patients, five of whom are in the ICU. Two of the COVID patients in intensive care are on ventilators.
“I am both disheartened and quite worried about our situation at the hospital currently. Definitely a very different situation than we were sitting in even a month ago as both a community as a hospital.”
Surgeries and other procedures are staying on track…for now, but Marshall the situation could change at any time.
“We are really at this stage on a day-to-day basis needing to evaluate our scheduled care,” Marshall says. “When the hospitals become overwhelmed, the only outlet that we have is to reduce our scheduled care, and that impacts then on surgical patients who may have to be cancelled.”
Meantime Chatham-Kent’s Chief Medical Officer is frustrated with misinformation being spread about the effectiveness of COVID vaccines.
“I’ve been warning people that this was going to happen because of Delta (variant) for weeks now, and here we are,” Dr. David Colby says. “It is imperative that people put aside these myths that the vaccine is untested, myths that the vaccine is unsafe, myths that the vaccine is ineffective.”
Dr. Colby says on a scale of one to ten, his frustration level with vaccine misinformation is into the thousands.
“Some people think that it’s inappropriate coercion by the government, I would say that trying to keep people safe is one of the most important things that a government can do.”
77% of COVID patients at the Health Alliance right now have not been fully vaccinated, with ages ranging from 20 years old up to 93.
As it stands, Chatham-Kent’s vaccination rate sits at 80% for first doses in those 12 and older, and 73% fully protected with both shots.
