COVID-19: KHSC Works to Increase Bed Capacity, Anticipating More Omicron Hospitalizations – Kingston | The Canadian News

Some surgeries and services are being scaled down at Kingston Health Sciences Center (KHSC).

Hospital officials say it’s to ensure there is sufficient hospital capacity for COVID patients and to address the impact the Omicron variant is having on staffing.

“The province is very concerned, I can tell you they are very concerned,” says KHSC President and CEO Dr. David Pichora.

This concern has led to the closure of schools and businesses, along with capacity and meeting restrictions in an effort to slow the rate of spread of the Omicron variant.

Dr. Doris Grinspun, director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO), says these steps should have happened sooner.

“Step two should have happened on December 10 if we wanted to spread the virus further,” says Grinspun.

Hospitals across the province, including KHSC, are reducing non-emergency surgical activity to maintain bed capacity and staff severely affected by Omicron.

“Our teams are tired,” says Pichora. “It has been two long years and, as in many other places, we have had retirements and other departures lately, partly as a result of the pandemic.”

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Pichora says there are around 70 to 80 employees out of work for COVID-related reasons.

Dr. Gerald Evans says that by looking at the pattern, the province could be dealing with an increase in COVID-19 cases for another two to four weeks.

But locally, the region may be a bit ahead because Omicron got here first.

“I think we’re starting to show something, which seems encouraging, I’ll just say, information that would suggest that we may have already peaked,” says Dr. Evans.

But there is a lag between case reduction and hospitalizations.

“So we are not yet seeing the full impact on hospitals, but hospital admissions figures across the province are increasing very fast,” Pichora says.

This has KHSC working to develop bed capacity and seeking community partners to address staffing challenges.

“Right now, all of our beds are unstaffed,” Pichora says. “So we’re looking at different ways to staff it and who we could bring in from the community to help us deal with some of the pressures, because we want to get the most out of our KGH and Hotel Dieu beds.”

Pichora says there are no immediate plans to open the former St. Mary’s of the Lake site as a field hospital, but it has been part of the discussions and planning.

“Providence Care has already opened some beds there, but for us to collectively open the rest of their beds, as well as our field hospital, it would require more work on the staff side,” Pichora says.

Dr. Evans expects COVID-19 hospitalizations to continue to rise locally for another week or two before they begin to stabilize.

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