About 300 staff off sick at Waterloo-Wellington hospitals

Local hospitals low on staff, high on patients From CTV Kitchener's Tegan Versolatto: Hospitals in Waterloo-Wellington are filling up with COVID-19 patients and fighting staff shortages.

Waterloo-Wellington — Waterloo-Wellington hospitals are facing the pressures of the Omicron variant on two fronts: a staffing shortage, and a rapid increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past five days.

“At this stage I would characterize our occupancy at very high today at St. Mary’s. It’s at 104 per cent,” said Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener and the lead for Waterloo-Wellington hospitals. “I know each hospital in Waterloo-Wellington is in a similar situation.

"All of the hospitals are seeing a sharp rise in admission."

Fairclough noted that Waterloo-Wellington hospitals are dealing with 74 COVID-19 positive patients, plus those who are resolved but are still requiring care.

This comes as about 300 hospital staff from St. Mary’s, Grand River Hospital, Cambridge Memorial Hospital, and additional hospitals in the Wellington County area are off due to COVID-19.

"It is expected that it'll be hospitalizations, and relatively shorter hospitalizations as opposed to longer ones, rather than ICU admissions, that will drive healthcare capacity challenges," said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the Medical Officer of Health for the Region of Waterloo. "Even if only one per cent are infected and requre hospital care, the sheer number of those is projected to overwhelm the health care system in January."

Fairclough said St. Mary’s has more than 45 staff off work.

“Many of our team members are being impacted by COVID. Either they tested positive or they have somebody in their home that is currently COVID positive and they need to isolate,” said Fairclough. “The good thing is because they are vaccinated they have mild symptoms but they still need to be isolating for a period of time.

"We already had some staffing concerns given the number of beds we've opened. We are going to need to open even more beds if we possibly can."

Due to the capacity and staffing pressures, Fairclough said Waterloo-Wellington hospitals are not in a position to accept out-of-town patient transfers.

She adds that there are also 7,000 patients waiting for surgery.

"We need to be able to have the staff, and right now, we need to have some of those staff caring for COVID positive patients."

Over at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, a spokesperson said 69 of their staff members are off because they are either a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case, or in isolation.

An outbreak was declared in CMH’s rehab unit Tuesday where a staff and patient tested positive.

Meanwhile Grand River Hospitals has about 200 staff either isolating at home, or home with a positive COVID-19 result.

“Additionally, we have two units that are experiencing a COVID outbreak, and another unit that is under investigation for an outbreak,” said Cheryl Evans, Manager of Communications and Engagement at Grand River Hospital in a statement to CTV.

Fairclough stressed that residents should still seek hospital care if they are in need.

“Please know we are trying to do our very best. So just be patient and kind to our staff," she said. "We’ve asked a lot from them.”