Several hospitals across the province are increasing capacity in case of a surge in COVID-19 patients.
Windsor Regional Hospital will transform a stand-alone athletic facility at St. Clair College’s main campus into a field hospital for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through a phased-in approach over the next few days, the SportsPlex will become an offsite hospital with the capacity to treat up to 100 patients in the recovery phase of their treatments, including patients recovering from the virus.
“We are preparing for the expected patient influx and creating capacity for Windsor-Essex,” said David Musyi, president and CEO at Windsor Regional Hospital. “Best case scenario is we do not need to move any patients to the St. Clair College site, but we have to be ready for the worst.”
Local hospitals, with support from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, have already increased capacity within the system. Windsor Regional Hospital currently has created capacity at its two acute care campuses of approximately 250 beds by pausing scheduled surgeries. Also, 109 more beds across both campuses were created by turning various rooms into patient rooms on each floor of each site.
St. Clair College President Patti France says the college is “honoured” to assist the hospital in its “heroic battle” against COVID-19. “Our students and staff have been using the SportsPlex to foster their health for the past half-decade, so it is a natural transition for the community to use it now to restore its health,” France said. “We will continue to respond immediately and enthusiastically to anything asked of the college while this challenge confronts our community.”
Retired Lieutenant Colonel, Andy Stewart, who has 38 years of experience with the British Army and is now a Major in the Canadian Armed Forces, assisted the hospital in selecting a suitable location for the field hospital. Acting as a civilian, Stewart, who worked in Germany during the Cold War and later in the UK during the fight against Foot and Mouth Disease, lent his expertise to the search.
“I want to indicate to our community that Windsor is in good hands, with this group of very professional and dedicated specialists. It was an honour and a privilege to help albeit in a small way to establish additional hospital capacity for Windsor and Essex County. Hopefully, it will not be required,” he said.
At the London Health Sciences Centre, work has begun to transform the Western Fair District Agriplex into a temporary off-site hospital. This work is being undertaken in partnership with the Western Fair District and the City of London and is part of the south west Ontario region’s pandemic response plan.
This facility will initially be used as a transfer facility for patients who are recovering from COVID-19, but not yet well enough to be discharged home. LHSC will open a 180-bed unit with the ability to expand the facility to 500 beds.
Grey Bruce Health Services (GBHS) is also working to increase its capacity to ensure hospitals can safely care for COVID-19 patients and maintain essential services such as the Emergency Departments, chemotherapy, labour and delivery, dialysis, and urgent diagnostic tests and surgeries.
“With the limited number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our region, we are able to support the current situation,” said Gary Sims, GBHS President and CEO. “However, our job is to be prepared for what’s to come, and right now we are flexing up to accommodate additional patients within our hospitals, and externally at alternate locations.”
GBHS has created a dedicated Respiratory Surge unit at its Owen Sound Hospital, added beds to the Intensive Care and Medicine units, and redesigned the Ambulatory Care area to handle up to 150 assessments for COVID-19 per 12 hour shift.
GBHS is also looking for a non-traditional hospital facility to care for up to 75 additional patients should the system require it.
Various locations are being considered, including the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound. GBHS will work with community, provincial, county and municipal partners, plus the Grey Bruce Health Unit, to deploy such a facility.