Bayshore News File Photo
Despite Grey Bruce having among the lower Covid infection rates for regions in southern Ontario, the president and CEO of Grey Bruce Health Services says the healthcare system in our area is facing immense pressure as it tries to catch-up on a backlog of procedures, deals with Covid patients and collaborates with other hospitals that are overwhelmed.
GBHS president and CEO Gary Sims joined the Open Line on 560 CFOS Friday, saying the intensive care unit at the Owen Sound Regional Hospital has been close to 100 per cent capacity for the past two weeks — half of those beds being filled by Covid patients.
Sims says while the community has done well by paying attention to Public Health guidelines in Grey Bruce and keeping the Covid situation at bay, the province’s system is “unfortunately collapsing on us.”
He says it is not just the current Covid situation that is challenging the local healthcare system. He says because of the spring shutdown when Ontario’s healthcare system postponed non-critical scheduled surgeries and procedures, a massive backlog is still being addressed.
“All of the surgical work that establishes whether an illness is in place or not was not done in that five month period. People stayed away from the hospital,” Sims explains. “Consequently, we always knew there would be a wave of people coming in who would be sicker. And we’re seeing it. Cardiac, respiratory, cancer patients: people that never got diagnosed and consequently didn’t get treated.”
“Now they’re showing up. And our hospital is full,” Sims continues. “It’s full right now.”
The pressure is also coming as a result of collaboration to avoid a collapse in service delivery as other hospitals become more overwhelmed. Sims says London Health Sciences Centre — also part of the South West Local Health Integration Network — completely closed recently and could not take patients unless they were “absolutely critical”. As a result, patients were being repatriated back from London for care in Owen Sound.
Acute dialysis in the South West Region LHIN has also been taken over by GBHS, cause London can not handle its own services at this point, Sims adds.
“We’re not only handling ours, we’re handling London’s. We’re handling Collingwood, and South Bruce Grey, and Hanover,” Sims explains. “And anywhere else where there are pressures, we’re also helping in that situation.”
Add all this with the steady volume of Covid patients that have come to the hospital and the day-to-day demand for services, Sims says GBHS is running at an “unprecedented” capacity rate that is not sustainable over a long period of time.
The situation has left GBHS forced to start scaling back some services again in order to staff more beds. Sims says as of next week some ambulatory care procedures will be shut down. In January, the number of operating rooms will be rolled back in order to double the ICU capacity and staff it.
Sims says 20 beds at the Owen Sound Field Hospital located at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre were transferred to the regional hospital to help handle the pressure and prepare for a Covid surge. Eight of those are being opened for use.
“If I have to keep opening beds I am stretching my staff,” Sims explains. “I don’t have extra staff. So, I have to keep shutting down critical services like surgery to manage that overflow.”
“It gets to a point where we’re in real crisis,” Sims continues. “We’re hoping we’re not going to get there. My staff have done a great job. I can’t speak highly enough about what a great job they’ve done.”
The GBHS president and CEO sits on the Ontario Hospital Association board and was among those who signed a plea to the Ontario government to enact four-week lockdowns in regions with Covid infection rates of 40 per 100,000 people or higher, out of concern the province’s healthcare system could soon be overwhelmed.
As of Sunday, Grey Bruce was below this threshold according to Covid-19 case data published online by the Ministry of Health.
Premier Ford is due to make an announcement this afternoon, when it’s expected additional restrictions will be detailed for parts of the province.