Queensway Carleton ‘beyond capacity’ as influenza cases mount

Non-emergency patients urged to try walk-in clinics before heading to hospital

An overload of patients, including waves of flu patients, has prompted the jammed Queensway Carleton Hospital to ask the public to stay away if possible this weekend.

For only the second time in its history, the hospital has issued a “Code Orange” alert, meaning every bed is full and even the hospital’s “surge” capacity has been used up.

The first Code Orange occurred just last month.

Last Sunday, the QCH had 272 patients in its emergency room, close to an all-time record.

The hospital is asking the public to limit their visits to true emergencies and warns that if you do come, be prepared for longerthan-usual waits.

This winter’s influenza outbreak is contributing to the problem. The QCH has had 90 admissions for the flu this year. As well, the hospital has an unusually high number of patients in its alternate level of care beds, which house patients that no long need acute care in hospital, but have nowhere else to go because of a shortage of beds at long-term care facilities. The Queensway Carleton has 56 patients in ALC beds, compared to the 38 patients it normally has. ALC patients currently account for more one fifth of the hospital’s total bed capacity.

The hospital is urging non-emergency patients to try walk-in clinics before heading to the hospital ER.

Meanwhile, the health authority for the Outaouais is still struggling with overcrowding, though it says special measures that began several weeks ago have helped.

On Friday morning, 41 people were waiting in emergency for beds to become available in the Hull, Gatineau and Papineau hospitals.

Much of the trouble is seasonal. The Outaouais has had 112 new confirmed cases of flu in the past week, bringing the season total to 839. Nine people have died of flu this year.

As well, the pattern of thaws followed by freezing has made walking treacherous, and the hospital has performed 92 emergency orthopedic surgeries this month for falls and fractures.

Understaffing remains a problem, the Integrated Health and Social Services Centre (CISSS) says. It is recruiting nurses and other staff, and also postponing some workers’ union duties for a few weeks to make more of them available for regular work. It has also reassigned some 30 staff internally to acute care duties.

The agency says people keep coming to the hospital emergency departments for problems that do not require hospital care.