EASING STRAIN ON HOSPITALS
Ministry of Long Term Care looking at ways to free up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients
TORONTO — Ontario’s Ministry of Long Term Care unveiled new moves it said could ease strain on a hospital system stretched to the limit by mounting COVID-19 cases, as public health officials in one hot-spot region partially closed two warehouses due to the virus.
The ministry announced Saturday that it will try to free up hospital beds by waiving fees for patients who agree to take a spot in a home that may not be their first choice until they’re placed in the facility they want.
“The third wave of COVID-19 is putting unprecedented pressure on Ontario’s hospitals, requiring immediate action,” Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said in a statement.
The province said patients who opt for an alternative longterm-care placement won’t lose their waiting list spots at their preferred facility. If they’re fully immunized, the government said they could also skip the otherwise mandatory isolation period before moving.
The ministry also announced it was relaxing staffing rules instituted earlier in the pandemic, saying long-term-care staff who are fully vaccinated are no longer limited to working in just one facility.
It’s an approach the Ontario Hospital Association had been promoting in recent weeks as ICU admissions soared to unprecedented highs.
“Obviously, this has to be done very closely and as collaboratively as possible with longterm care, but in doing so, we will ultimately help provide hospitals with additional staffing flexibility to address the other very significant patient care priorities in hospitals,” association President Anthony Dale said in an interview.
The patient transfer strategy is the province’s latest attempt to curb COVID-19 cases, which have remained high and grown to include 36 cases of a new variant first detected in India.
The province has hoped its recently increased vaccination efforts, which included making the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot available to residents 40 and older, would reduce those numbers. But the group of experts advising the government believes the provincial strategy may need an overhaul.