Virus hits three units at Lakeshore
Staff say hospital should be testing workers more regularly
Staff at the Lakeshore General Hospital are battling COVID-19 outbreaks on three units, with four respiratory therapists having contracted the pandemic illness, the Montreal Gazette has learned.
The outbreaks come as the Quebec Health Ministry on Monday reported 28 more COVID-19 hospitalizations across the province, raising the total to 693. Cases are also on the rise in Montreal, with the city posting a daily average of 422 for the past three days, up from the 200-range two weeks ago.
In June, the Lakeshore opened a $12-million prefabricated wing next to the hospital for COVID-19 patients. The 24-bed unit was constructed, in part, to eliminate the multiple outbreaks that had hit the Pointe-claire hospital since the start of the pandemic.
A source noted that respiratory therapists work throughout the hospital, suggesting that they might have inadvertently spread the coronavirus.
“The problem is that the respiratory therapists work everywhere in the hospital,” said the source, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak to the news media.
“In order to know the extent of the spread, they should do massive testing but they won't. This continual reluctance to screen properly has been displayed again and again at the Lakeshore. They just do not want to know because they fear they'd have to shut the place down due to so many staff testing positive.”
Annie Charbonneau, a spokesperson for the West Island health authority in charge of the Lakeshore, insisted that staff are tested often.
“Employees are encouraged to get tested regularly,” Charbonneau said in an email late Monday afternoon in response to a series of questions.
“Staff are reminded of this message frequently, in addition to being reminded to handle personal protective equipment with the utmost rigour for the prevention of infections.”
Charbonneau declined to provide the number of staff or patients infected, or to identify the three wards “for reasons of confidentiality.”
Crews are now disinfecting the three units, and the hospital has suspended all admissions and visits to them, “unless there are humanitarian reasons.”
Officials have not yet pinpointed the source of the outbreaks. During the second wave of the pandemic, Santa Cabrini, the Jewish General and Montreal General hospitals have also struggled with COVID-19 clusters. The outbreaks
Employees are encouraged to get tested regularly. Staff are reminded of this message frequently.
at Santa Cabrini and the Montreal General originated in the emergency rooms amid overcrowding.
Charbonneau said that despite the outbreaks, normal clinical activities will continue at the Lakeshore.
Outbreaks are also flaring up in the city's long-term care centres. On Saturday, the Maimonides Geriatric Centre in Côte- St-luc took the unprecedented step of closing its COVID-19 hot zone and transferring all 30 of its infected residents to the Jewish General and Hôtel Dieu hospitals. Ten residents have died during the latest outbreak at Maimonides.
Meanwhile, the CHSLD Manoir de l'ouest de l'île in Pierrefonds reported six more infected residents Monday in an outbreak that has been deemed the most critical in the province because a total of 33 residents, or 43 per cent of the CHSLD'S population, has COVID-19.