‘In a situation of war,’ Jewish General braces for COVID-19 wave
Retired nurses are urged to volunteer as Info-santé hotline swamped by calls
Medical staff at the Jewish General Hospital — one of four designated COVID -19 centres in Quebec — say they’re preparing for a “wave” of patients with the pandemic respiratory illness.
At present, two patients with COVID-19 are being treated at the Côte-des-neiges hospital in negative-pressure rooms to prevent the transmission of the highly contagious SARS-COV-2 coronavirus. Officials declined to disclose the health status of those patients.
But as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province rose by eight to 17 on Thursday, officials at the Jewish General appealed to retired nurses and those on leave to volunteer to answer the 811 Info-santé medical hotline. On Wednesday, Info-santé was swamped with more than 16,000 phone calls from worried members of the public, resulting in considerable wait times.
People are advised to call 811 if they have the flu-like symptoms associated with COVID -19. If they have such symptoms and have returned recently from abroad or have come into contact with someone who has, they will be directed to a designated clinic that screens exclusively for COVID -19.
“It’s like we are in a situation of war,” Francine Dupuis, the associate director general of Montreal’s centre-west health authority, told reporters at a news conference.
There are three designated COVID -19 screening clinics, with Montreal’s sole one at the former Hôtel Dieu hospital. However, Dupuis said, there are plans to open two more in Montreal: on the West Island and in the east end. A clinic is also set to open in Laval in addition to one on Monday on the South Shore in Greenfield Park.
Dupuis explained that the goal of the screening clinics is to relieve pressure on hospitals, while reducing the transmission of the novel coronavirus.
Dr. Louise Miner, director of professional services, said the Jewish General is now carrying out an inventory of respirator machines in its facilities. The machines will be used to help patients breathe if they develop one of the severe complications of COVID -19: pneumonia.
At present, the Jewish General has respirators in each of its 10 intensive-care rooms as well as in all its operating rooms.
The Quebec Health Ministry has ordered every hospital in the province to conduct similar inventories, suggesting that it wants to be proactive in the event of a worstcase scenario similar to what has occurred in China, Iran and Italy: widespread community outbreaks of the potentially lethal coronavirus.
The Jewish General has an 87-bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, and has performed numerous training simulations. But Dupuis and Miner acknowledged that the Jewish General would probably be overwhelmed in the event of widespread transmission.
In a worst-case scenario, other hospitals in Montreal would be asked to “pitch in,” including the superhospital of the Mcgill University Health Centre, Miner suggested.
“We have not had community transmission yet. It may happen,” Miner said. “When it does, it’s going to be a much bigger wave.”
“If such a thing were to happen, almost all the major institutions in the province would become designated and everybody’s going to have to pitch in,” she added. “You don’t want the health-care system to get overwhelmed, which is why controlling things now is of crucial importance.”
Hospitals might also have to scale back certain procedures to meet the demand in COVID-19 treatment, Dupuis said.
Dr. Yves Longtin, chief of infectious diseases at the centre-west CIUSSS, appealed to healthy, asymptomatic members of the public not to buy N-95 respirator masks. He noted that up to 60 masks a day are being used to treat a single COVID -19 patient.
Although the Jewish General has enough masks for the moment, those supplies are not unlimited, and hospitals purchase them from the same suppliers as the general public, Longtin explained.
Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebec’s chief public health officer, has reiterated that there is no community
transmission of the rogue coronavirus. But officials suspect that the virus may already be circulating in the community.
Retired nurses or those on leave
interested in being trained to answer 811 calls are encouraged to call 514-293-0526.