Outbreaks hit the Douglas and Lakeshore hospitals
Thirty patients and 34 health-care workers at the Lakeshore General Hospital have tested positive for COVID -19 in an outbreak on a single floor — a situation so dire authorities have had no other choice but to temporarily bar new admissions to the geriatrics unit.
And the West Island health authority, which is in charge of the Pointe-claire hospital, is also trying to contain a second major outbreak at another institution it oversees: the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, where 16 patients and 22 workers have tested positive.
At his daily briefing on Thursday, Quebec Premier François Legault spoke about the outbreaks at the two hospitals, along with one at Maisonneuve-rosemont, describing their situations as “critical.”
Le Devoir reported Thursday that the outbreak at the Verdun hospital occurred after psychiatric patients were transferred from the Lakeshore to the Douglas, but officials denied that was the case. Although the Lakeshore did move all its psychiatric patients to the Douglas in the midst of the outbreak in Pointeclaire, officials said none of the Lakeshore patients had COVID -19 before being sent to Verdun.
The Lakeshore is now filled to beyond its capacity and the CIUSSS de l’ouest-de-l’île-de-montréal is sending new patients to a field hospital set up by the Canadian Red Cross inside a hockey arena in Lasalle.
“The mobile hospital in Lasalle will allow the (CIUSSS) to receive more patients and to optimize the delivery of care and services to elderly people with COVID -19 on its territory,” spokesperson Guillaume Bérubé said in an email.
The morgue at the Lakeshore is filled with those who have succumbed to the pandemic respiratory illness and other causes, a source told the Montreal Gazette. In response, authorities have parked a refrigerated truck outside the Lakeshore, along with mobile morgues outside Lasalle Hospital and the Douglas, Bérubé confirmed.
“Like other (health authorities) in Quebec, the (West Island CIUSSS) has proactively planned” temporary morgues, he added. “If a very high number of deaths were to occur, the (CIUSSS) would then be able to treat remains in a dignified manner until the funeral homes can take charge of them.”
The source noted that at the Lakeshore, 21 out of 38 patients tested positive on 4 North, a socalled cold zone. Another 17 out of 32 patients got infected on 4 South, another cold zone. However, Bérubé disputed that figure, saying a total of 30 patients contracted the novel coronavirus in the outbreak. In the same email, Bérubé observed that the Lakeshore has a total of 79 confirmed cases.
The source suggested the Lakeshore outbreak was caused as a result of staff moving between the hot and cold zones of the hospital. The fourth floor houses geriatrics, acute medicine, cardiology and psychiatry.
Bérubé said patients who test positive for COVID-19 are transferred to a containment zone.
“Following the new outbreak at the hospital, a team reorganized the (Lakeshore’s) containment zones,” he explained. “For all other patients, the precautionary measures recommended by public health authorities are being applied.”
The hospital will “continue to test (patients) and ensure that all staff members are tested over the next few days,” Bérubé added.
In the past two weeks, both the Lakeshore and Douglas have reported significant overcrowding in their emergency rooms. The source said some of the ER staff at the Lakeshore have been infected with COVID-19. Bérubé did not answer a query about infected ER staff at the acute-care hospital.