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I don't get paid unless I getYoumoneY. oFFiCeS in oakville and ToronTo eMail: sspadafora@slspc.ca Disability and EmploymEnt law Halton residents need look no further than their own commu- nities to find hospitals under tre- mendous duress: surging num- bers of COVID-19 patients, ICUs at capacity, exhausted doctors and nurses and staff shortages. "The third wave has chal- lenged hospitals like never be- fore," said Cindy McDonell, SVP Clinical Operations, Halton Healthcare. "This presentation is related to the increase in preva- lence of variants of concern. CO- VID-19 patients in our hospitals today are younger, very sick and many need intensive care. We are seeing many more COVID-19 pa- tients in our ICUs than we did in Wave 1 or Wave 2." At Burlington's Joseph Brant Hospital, capacity has been hov- ering around 95 per cent and reached full capacity two weeks ago, said Dr. Ian Preyra, Joseph Brant Hospital's chief of staff. "In just two weeks, the num- ber of COVID-19 patients in our care has more than doubled and continues to increase daily. If this upward trend continues, hospitals will be overwhelmed," said Preyra. ICU patients include both Hal- ton and non-Halton patients, CO- VID and non-COVID patients. All non-urgent surgeries and procedures have been halted with only oncology and urgent life-saving procedures being booked, he said. Seven intensive care beds have been added in the past week, bringing the total to 31 beds; with the addition of these beds, JBH has "limited capacity." "In terms of resources, there is a shortage of health-care work- ers across the province, and we're doing our best to provide quality care for our patients with those limited resources," said Preyra. Between the three hospitals within Halton Healthcare, Oak- ville Trafalgar Memorial Hospi- tal has 24 ICU beds, Milton Dis- trict Hospital 10 and Georgetown Hospital three ICU beds. As of April 16, four ICU beds were added in an Halton Health- care acute care unit. "However, our ability to care for patients in these beds is large- ly dependent on staffing avail- ability," said McDonell. COVID plans and strategies to ensure the provision of essential health-care services to commu- nities includes such things as the building of two internal field hos- pitals to create additional capac- ity, and working with home and community care partners to pro- vide resources and support to care for people in their own homes when possible, said McDonell. The ability of Halton hospitals to accept more patients, includ- ing ICU patients, is assessed ev- ery day and reported to the GTA Incident Management System, a province-initiated plan which monitors hospital capacity needs in real time, and has the author- ity to move patients to and from hospitals, said McDonell. Halton Healthcare capacity is a fluid situation that changes on a daily basis, she said. The shortage of health-care workers, especially critical-care nurses, is province-wide; both Halton Healthcare and JBH are actively recruiting staff. "The surge in patients pre- sents a challenge with respect to the additional work required and the need to protect and preserve health human resources," said McDonell. "Our teams have done an amazing job of making sure we are able to accept these patients and provide them with the care they require all while ensuring our communities' health-care needs continue to be met." Along with other hospitals in Ontario, both Halton Healthcare and JBH have implemented a teams model, or multidisciplin- ary approach to care delivery. The team composition and size are adjusted depending on how sick the patient is and staff availability, said McDonell. Emergent and urgent care are the priority as elective activities are reduced allowing the rede- ployment of staff to other areas of the hospital, she said. "We are taking deliberate ac- tion to maintain our hospital ca- pacity; however, the actions tak- en by individuals in the commu- nity will make the biggest differ- ence. We urge the public to please follow public health guidance," said Preyra. PANDEMIC PUTTING MASSIVE STRAIN ON AREA HOSPITALS ICU units at area hospitals have been at or neat capacity in recent weeks due to the pandemic's third wave. Graham Paine/Metroland KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com NEWS