Cornwall hospital juggles surge in sick patients as staff shortage drags on

The Omicron wave has hit the region and the Cornwall hospital hard. Finding space for patients is only one of the challenges facing the hospital.

There are no speeches or ceremonies being held in the auditorium at Cornwall Community Hospital.

With the health care facility running over-capacity, the auditorium has been turned into a new ward with cubicles for 11 patients.

Right next door, the speech therapy and occupational therapy rooms are being used to create four more beds, yet the director of the acute medicine department says space remains a challenge.

“It’s still very much overflowing,” Paula Sleeman says.

Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH) is the biggest hospital in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit. It’s a mostly rural region south of Ottawa, tucked up against the Quebec border.

The Omicron wave has hit the region and the hospital hard. Space is only one challenge.

This week, 38 staff members are off sick with COVID-19. Last week it was 50, and it’s been as high as 75.

In recent weeks, Sleeman says staffing has been such a problem it’s been, at times, unsafe. The acute medicine department would normally have 12 nurses on duty, but on some days as many as five were off sick. The department had a stretch of about 10 days when Sleeman says the patient-to-nurse ratio made it hard to deliver care safely.