Hospitals appeal for COVID help
Letter to local residents outlines stress on staff, system, urges `gift of compassion'
Your urgent help is required.
That was the message in a roughly 500-word letter penned by all three local hospitals and addressed to the residents of Windsor and Essex County on Friday.
Signed by the CEOS, chiefs of staff and board chairs of Windsor Regional Hospital, Hotel-dieu Grace Healthcare and Erie Shores Healthcare, the letter spoke of “extremely serious strain” on the health-care system caused by the pandemic's large second wave and asked residents to help “do your part to keep COVID-19 transmission at bay.”
The letter cites several events from this past week as evidence of the strain on the hospitals and their community partners, including single-day COVID-19 increases “reaching a critical point,” a rising number of workplace and school outbreaks, and a rising demand for COVID-19 testing.
The Windsor-essex County Health Unit last weekend declared outbreaks at both Hotel-dieu's Prince Road facility and Windsor Regional's Ouellette campus, “which risk significant reductions in available bed capacity at both institutions at a time when hospital bed use is above 100 per cent,” the letter says. At Ouellette campus alone, only about 30 beds on a 60 bed unit — the seventh floor, where the outbreak has occurred and remains active — are currently occupied, and the 90 staff assigned to that unit are unable to work anywhere else.
As a result, patients in Windsor are being diverted to available space at Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington. Others may need to be transferred to Chatham, the letter says, “to take advantage of every single bed available for patients.” Local clinical teams will soon be forced to cancel scheduled surgeries and procedures to keep bed space available for emergency and urgent cases.
Scenes Windsor-essex residents might be watching on TV from hospitals in other parts of the world, “where resources are stretched beyond capacity, is showing signs of occurring” here.
During the health unit's news conference Friday, medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed echoed the letter's sentiments and again asked residents to stay home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Outside of Canada, overrun hospital staff “have to make the tough choice (of ) who they want to save, who they don't want to spend time saving,” because there are too many patients who need help, Ahmed said. “We definitely don't want (that).”
The hospitals' letter goes on to say staff “in many cases are reaching the point of exhaustion,” and paramedics, long-term care and retirement home employees, home-care providers and mental health service staff “are also feeling the strain.”
The letter acknowledges many residents “are tired” of COVID-19 and messages telling them to wear a mask, maintain physical distance from those outside their household, and to limit trips away from home to only work, school, and for important needs like groceries. Residents are also tired of cancelled events and celebrations with family and friends.
“Our health-care teams are tired too,” it says.
“We are asking that you help them, and our communities, by understanding the severity of the situation and, no matter how many times you've heard it, and might be tired of hearing it, that you do your part to keep COVID-19 transmission at bay.”
The letter also emphasizes that COVID-19 is real and “the higher the number of COVID-19 positive cases, the higher the likelihood of more and more cases requiring emergency and critical care.”
“The lives of many individuals in our community are depending on your help.”
The letter concludes with a plea to residents to “give the gift of understanding, compassion and kindness” to hospital workers and the general community this holiday season.