Beds Funded to Brantford General Hospital to relieve the Flu Strain of the Year

The Brantford General Hospital is funded for a total of 262 beds over the past week to deal with the deluge in the Emergency Department caused by a high number of patients with acute respiratory influenza symptoms.

“This situation is similar to what is happening in other communities throughout Ontario,” says Wendy Stewart, Spokesperson of the Communications and Public Affairs of Brant Community Healthcare System, “the BCHS typically experiences high volumes [of patients] after the holiday season, but this is especially high.” “Not only is our ED overwhelmed with volume, we are beyond capacity on our inpatient units, limiting access for patients to be admitted from the ED,” said Lina Rinaldi, the Chief Nurse Executive of the BCHS, in a media release last week. The situation is complicated by patients with gastro-enteritis and acute respiratory influenza symptoms, and other patients who need to be isolated due to illness. On Monday morning, January 9, approximately 1/3 of the patients registered in the hospital needed isolation. Emergency Department of the City of Hamilton as well has seen the number of patients nearly doubled over the past week, from 209 to 340. The General Hospital of Hamilton and St. Joseph have opened additional beds, 40 and 39 respectively, and added additional work shifts and hospital staff, commented by Dr. Ian Preyra, Chief of Emergency Medicine at St. Joseph’s Healthcare of the City of Hamilton in a news article of Hamilton Spectator. According to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Ontario’s current status on influenza activities is “Orange,” indicating the provincial influenza-related activity is at elevated seasonal levels and may be reaching peak levels this week. “Organizations may see increases in staff absenteeism rates associated with influenza virus activity,” warned the Ministry. It also encourages heath institutions and hospitals to put in place capacity management plans to deal with the deluge. Some visitors of the emergency department stated in an interview that they have experienced longer hour waits recently. For example, Jennifer Thompson visited the ER on January 4 for “a severe pain in her back,” she was even rejected admission by the hospital after four hours of waiting. Dr. Eric Irvine, the Chief of Emergency Medicine of the Brant Community Healthcare System, advised to avoid any unnecessary visits to the ED during the flu strain of year. “If you need to visit an emergency department, please know that we always treat the most critically and/or seriously ill patients first,” stated Dr. Irvine. For information about flu Call the ServiceOntario INFOline at 1-877-844-1944TTY 1-800-387-5559TTY (Toronto) 416-327-4282Hours of operation : 8:30am - 5:00pm To speak with a registered nurse Visit Telehealth Ontario or call 1-866-797-0000TTY: 1-866-797-0007Hours of operation : 24 hours, 7 days a week To find health care options in your community Visit ontario.ca/healthcareoptions or call 1-866-330-6206. To find a health care provider If you don’t have a health care provider, you can register for the Health Care Connect program. Visit ontario.ca/healthcareconnect or call 1-800-445-1822.