An upcoming renovation at Chatham-Kent’s hospital will make two new patient beds a permanent addition to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Officials with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance said the two new beds were added at the Chatham site of the hospital on August 2, thanks to funding announced in the spring as part of the provincial budget.
“This is a pretty significant development for our community and the result of quite some time, over a year, of working with provincial organizations and our funders,” said Caen Suni, CKHA’s vice president of clinical programs and operations. “What we look forward to is not only to increase capacity, but an increased unit allows us to adjust the type of care offered on the unit. So we can attract more expertise and decrease reliance on regional resources.”
There are now 12 beds in the ICU.
The two additional beds are currently in an interim space but Suni said plans are currently being made to renovate the ICU to make the new beds a permanent inclusion to the unit.
“When the critical care unit is busy, patients require that heightened level of care and they maybe need to be sent to larger centres such as Windsor or London, and even on occasion to Sarnia,” said Suni. “An expanded unit allows CKHA to support more critical patients closer to home.”
Suni added that he’s hopeful the renovation will be completed by the new year.
