Kingston Hospitals Forced To Transfer Patients Due To High COVID-19 Levels – Kingston | The Canadian News

Kingston has reached a grim milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time, Kingston Health Sciences Center will have to send local patients to other regions for care due to the increase in local COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalization.

“At this point, we obtained an order from Ontario Health to transfer three patients out of the ICU, to try to remove some of our capacity challenge,” said Dr. David Pichora, KHSC President and CEO.

Last spring, Kingston hospitals began receiving patients from other COVID hot spots, hit hard during the third wave of the pandemic.

Between March 1 and May 19, nearly 150 COVID patients were flown to Kingston from outside the region.

Now it is Kingston who needs help. Hospitalizations have risen steadily in recent weeks, as case counts hit record highs.

As of Tuesday, the hospital organization was treating 29 COVID-positive patients, 11 of whom were in intensive care units. The region also recorded an unprecedented 389 active cases on Tuesday.

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News of the patient transfer comes a week after KHSC revealed that its ICUs were at 90 percent capacity.

“We are grateful that they are there to help. We know what it’s like on both sides, “Pichora said.” You know, even when we were bringing in patients in the spring, we were also taking patients out at that time. We transferred patients to Brockville and Quinte to build capacity for GTA patients. “

He says moving patients to health centers in Ottawa and Brockville will ensure the hospital can accept patients requiring emergency care.

“We are so full right now, we are concerned on any given day about our ability to complete all of our scheduled heart surgeries, neurosurgeries, hip and knee replacements, a whole host of other procedures that are urgent and that people are waiting for.” Pichora said.

The positivity rate for the Kingston area is now 135 per 100,000 residents, a record.

Kingston’s case count per 100,000 surpasses Ottawa, which stands at 35.

This pushes Kingston further into the red zone, which the region has been in for weeks.

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