Grey Bruce Health Services President and CEO Gary Sims says the next ten to 14 days are going to be very difficult for Ontario hospitals.
Sims says the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting hospitals all over the province including those in Grey Bruce, “If people think this is not real, it’s about to overload the healthcare system,” says Sims.
“The systems that you’ve come to rely on like hospitals are now at a point where our ICUs are filling so quickly, in the next ten to 14 days we could lose our ICU capacity,” says Sims. The Province has about 2,200 ICU beds and is trying to expand that number. ICU beds require highly specialized staff, which also makes it a human resources issue.
Sims explains, “That means in 14 days if we have not adjusted or have not been able to control this or shut it down, you could have a car accident on the street, be brought to an emerg department and you might not get surgery to save your life because we don’t have an ICU to put you in afterwards.” Sims says a person might go straight to palliative care, or possibly a medical bed with a lower level of care.
He explains, locally, five of the six ICU beds in the Owen Sound Hospital are full. He plans to expand to ten ICU beds. One bed is being kept open for as long as possible in case there is a crash or other serious incident, “Over half of my ICU patients right now are from out of area. They’re all vented, they’re all COVID positive and they’re extremely sick individuals.”
Sims’ message for those who take issue with non residents being treated in Grey Bruce is,”Hospitals across the province belong to the Province as a whole. We always work together. If you have a real problem here in Owen Sound and we can’t manage, we ship you to Toronto, that’s what we do, or we ship you to London.”
“Now they’re in trouble, they’re shipping to us,” says Sims.
“For the first time in history our pediatric ICU beds in Sick Kids are full of adults. COVID positive adults. Never been done before,” says Sims, noting, “The hospitals are doing everything they can to flex, expand and manage.”
He says, “You don’t see it day to day when you go to work or when you’re walking the street or if you’re at Shoppers Drug Mart, but believe me the healthcare system right now is reeling and struggling to meet all those needs.”
He says there’s also an influx of non COVID-19 patients who should have been to hospital in the first and second waves and are now more sick than they would have been if they’d had better access to care.
He notes, as more people are sent to Owen Sound, Grey Bruce Health Services will have to send some of its other patients to neighbouring hospitals like Hanover or South Bruce Grey Health Centre. Those hospitals are sending some staff to Owen Sound to be trained to help with the increased pressure. “Locally, we think we’re doing pretty good and we’re prepared with different scenario plans.” Sims says they added 20 medical non-ICU beds, since the start of the pandemic and they’re looking at adding 20 more.
The field hospital at the Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound has not yet taken any patients.
Sims says the Southwest region, (which Grey Bruce is part of) is ordered to take 100 patients out of Toronto in this next week. “I’ve just been asked (Sunday) to take ten patients from Barrie,” says Sims, who also explains moving patients is difficult, “Our air ambulance services are running 24/7 trying to take people and can’t keep up. The complexity of moving vented very sick people is very difficult to do.”
Sims says moving is hard for patients, “They’re uprooted from their families. Their families are not really supposed to be travelling. We have restricted visitor policies. It’s very difficult for families and patients. It’s a very frightening time.”
To those who don’t believe the pandemic is a real issue, Sims says, “Have no doubt, right now this is a crisis for hospitals. Have no doubt that by shutting down our surgeries again, we are doing harm now. We’re doing harm to the future years of healthcare and the provision of healthcare for our communities.”
“So as calmly as I can, I will tell you that we have 14 days now to turn this around. To stop this spread and to give our healthcare system the chance to manage the amount of sick people, dying people,” says Sims.
He explains,”In wave one the infection rate coming out of positive testing was around four per cent. Right now we’re above ten per cent.” Sims says of the people who get sick with COVID-19, that are going into the ICU, 60 per cent of them need to be ventilated because they can’t breathe on their own.
“Of the people that go on vents,” says Sims, statistically, “One in three will die. No doubt about it, one in three will die. Doesn’t matter what your age is, one in three will die,” he says.
“It’s real stuff,” says Sims, adding, “It’s very hard if you’re not the family standing there watching it happen to understand, but my staff understand. The doctors understand, and if they could scream at the top of their lungs they would. So consider this me screaming at the top of my lungs saying please pay attention.”
Listen to Sims on the Open Line Show on AM 560 CFOS Monday April 19th.
