Ontario boosts hospital capacity
Two emergency orders address crunch in ICUs as COVID cases soar
++++TORONTO — Ontario has issued a pair of emergency orders to help it address a hospital capacity crunch, including a directive allowing patient transfers without consent.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says a recent spike in COVID-19 patients arriving at hospitals prompted the orders that are effective immediately.
Elliott says patients will only be transferred to an alternate site when a hospital experiences “a major surge event.”
The province has been transferring patients between hospitals for months to accommodate a growing number of COVID-19 cases, but those transfers were done with the patient’s permission.
The second emergency order issued Friday allows the province to redeploy dozens of workers from home-care organizations and Ontario Health — the body that oversees the health system — to hospitals during a surge.
The orders come as Ontario hospitals are preparing to start ramping down elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures next week to ensure they have the capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.
Elliott says the new orders, combined with the ramping down of elective surgeries, could increase ICU capacity by up to 1,000 patient beds.
The president and CEO of Ontario Health — which oversees the province’s health system — told hospitals to make the move as the number of COVID-19 patients in the province’s intensive care units hit a new high.
“Given increasing case counts and widespread community transmission across many parts of the province, we are facing mounting and extreme pressure on our critical care capacity,” Matthew Anderson said in a memo issued Thursday night.
The moves come as the regulatory body for Ontario physicians shared a message of support for doctors who may have to decide which patients will receive life-saving treatment if intensive care units are overwhelmed.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario told doctors they will be supported if the measure takes effect.
“We firmly believe physicians need to be supported if they are required to make extraordinary decisions about which of their patients will be offered critical care resources that are in short supply,” Nancy Whitmore, registrar of the college, said in a message to the profession Thursday night.
The college will be there to provide clarity if the protocol is enacted, she said, acknowledging the “unprecedented situation” in intensive care units and noting that “physicians may soon be faced with making incredibly difficult decisions that they never imagined having to make.”
There were 552 patients with COVID-related critical illness in Ontario intensive care units as of Friday morning, according to the Ministry of Health.
Ontario also reported a record high of 4,227 new cases of COVID-19 Friday and 18 additional deaths from the virus.
The latest news came as Ontario Premier Doug Ford received a COVID-19 vaccine at a Toronto pharmacy on Friday and said “things are looking really, really positive out there.”
The CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario said soaring COVID-19 cases represent the “biggest crisis” of the pandemic for the province.
Doris Grinspun said the government must empower more primary health-care workers to deliver vaccines, and should cut down on bureaucracy holding the home-care sector back from giving doses to clients.
“We need to make things simple, and emphasize speed, speed, speed,” she said. “We must move faster, have less focus on perfection.”
Meanwhile, vaccine appointment bookings opened to some residents aged 50 and older in Toronto and Peel Region on Friday.