Chief of Staff Dr. Colin MacPherson was on the Lorne Brooker Show Friday morning talking about Quinte Health Care’s response to the third wave of COVID-19.
As of today, 14 patients with the virus were hospitalized at QHC.
Six are in the ICU with one on a ventilator.
While not giving specific numbers, he did say that not all patients being treated for the virus are from the Quinte region.
“We routinely, even in the best of times, need to rely on counterparts in Kingston and Ottawa and elsewhere and transfer patients as required. But obviously COVID has put a strain on the whole system so Quinte Health Care is playing its part with our counterparts in the system and we have received some patients from the Scarborough area.”
He says they’ve made a lot of preparations to treat people with the illness noting that they now have the capacity for up to 26 ICU patients.
“We have dedicated wards. We have now very well trained staff, particularly in our Intensive Care area, who are providing excellent care. We’ve prepared the hospital very well in anticipation of increased need.”
Dr. MacPherson also says people who need to go to the hospital for other reasons shouldn’t worry about going.
“We have set things up very well to not only have the space we need for people who need critical care services, emergency services, but we’ve set the spaces up to ensure good infection control. So, in that respect, we’re a lot further ahead than we were a year ago.”
He adds they have cut back the number of surgeries at the hospital by about 50% as directed by the province but says all urgent and emergent surgeries are continuing.
He is also still urging people to follow health and safety protocols to fight COVID-19 so the hospital isn’t stretched as thin as some Ontario hospitals already are.