University Health Network (UHN) says the three intensive care units at Toronto General Hospital are at or near capacity as the health system struggles to keep up with demand.
In an email to CP24 on Tuesday, a UHN spokesperson confirmed that Toronto General Hospital is under a “critical care bed alert” affecting their medical-surgical, coronary and cardiovascular intensive care units.
“This means that our 3 intensive care units – CVICU, CICU and MSICU – are at full bed capacity and/or have limited human resources to safely keep all physical critical care beds open and operational,” the spokesperson said UHN Rose Kim .
“Due to multiple factors, including issues caused by the ongoing pandemic, we are experiencing staff shortages that require this action.”
While on alert, Kim said, the hospital actively triages patients who need specialized care in the intensive care unit and works in collaboration with Criticall, a ministry-funded organization that helps ensure patients in the province have access to emergency and urgent care – to ensure that patients “receive the most appropriate care.”
An Aug. 1 report from Critical Care Services Ontario obtained by CP24 shows intensive care beds at Toronto General were 59 percent occupied as of Monday. Although the report states that 50 critical care beds are physically available, the hospital’s ability to use these beds for treatment is limited by the availability of nurses and doctors to care for these patients.
Only three of the 73 intensive care beds occupied at the hospital on Monday were being used for patients with critical illness related to COVID-19, the report showed, indicating that a sudden surge in COVID-19 infections could easily worsen the already precarious situation.
The intensive care bed alert at one of Toronto’s busiest hospitals comes as Ontario’s health care system struggles to keep up with demand.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones told CP24 on Tuesday that she is working with stakeholders in the health care system to try to resolve staff shortages and other issues that are impeding care.
But emergency and intensive care workers in the province say the situation is becoming desperate.
Dr. Raghu Venugopal, an emergency room doctor who works at three GTA hospitals, told CP24 the strain on the system is clear to anyone seeking treatment.
“The most important response is not what I say, but what patients and families feel,” Venugopal said. When patients wait hours with a large dislocated joint to be reduced, when patients wait hours on a chair for a fracture set, when senior citizens wait three to four days on a gurney to be admitted to hospital, when my patient currently is on day four of being on an ER for trauma — when these are the real situations in this province today, what do you think the people of Ontario would say to the minister if they were asked, “Do you feel well looked after?”
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario president Claudette Holloway called the situation “scary and dangerous” in another interview with CP24 on Tuesday.
“I haven’t seen it that bad, but we know that over the years there has been a shortage of nurses in Ontario, especially registered nurses. Our quota is less than other provinces,” Holloway said. “So this is certainly a grave and dangerous situation that needs drastic responses from our politicians.”
She said she and other health workers are “ready to sit at the table” to discuss long-term recruitment and retention strategies for the province.
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