Another summer of gridlock at hospitals

Overflow of 139 patients in Hamilton as system remains ‘under immense pressure’

Hamilton’s hospitals are overcrowded for the second summer in a row with an overflow of 139 patients.

“The system remains under immense pressure,” the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) said in a statement. “The occupancy rates we are seeing this summer are very similar to those from last year, which were the highest recorded since the province started measuring wait times a decade ago.”

Hamilton Health Sciences has 103 patients in beds that are not funded by the province as of Aug. 21. St. Joseph’s has 36.

These beds can be in unconventional spaces like sunrooms and hallways, and put pressure on Hamilton hospital budgets which already require tens of millions of dollars in cost-cutting for the fiscal year that started April 1.

The overflow is on top of 68 extra beds opened in Hamilton after the province provided additional funding in October. That boost was meant to cope with the surges that are increasingly lasting all year, instead of primarily during winter flu season.

“We just don’t have enough beds,” said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU). “One of the reasons we have a crisis with respect to hallway medicine ... is it’s clear Ontario has the fewest number of hospital beds to population in Canada ... We are a true outlier in terms of how little capacity we have.”

Hamilton needs an additional 530 hospital beds to catch up to the national average of beds per capita, says the OCHU, which is the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

It released a report in Hamilton Wednesday recommending hospital occupancy levels not exceed 85 per cent.

At Hamilton Health Sciences, the occupancy rate is currently 114 per cent for adult medical and surgical beds. At St. Joseph’s Healthcare, occupancy in the medical wards has been 105 per cent for August. It’s less than the 128 per cent the downtown hospital struggled with last year, but it’s still too high.

“The government has clearly committed to taking steps to end hallway medicine in Ontario,” the OHA said referring to Premier Doug Ford’s election promise.

So far, the Conservatives have created a new council on improving health care.

Part of the issue are patients stuck in hospital while waiting for other types of care, particularly in the community such as long-term care and home care.

At Hamilton Health Sciences, 136 beds are taken up by people ready to be discharged from hospital.