COVID-19: Kitchener hospital issues warning about ‘unprecedented level of pressure’

Kitchener’s Grand River Hospital has issued a warning to the public about the pressures it is facing as a result of the rush created by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Kitchener’s Grand River Hospital has issued a warning to the public about the pressures it is facing as a result of the rush created by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The hospital says that as of 11 a.m. Thursday, there were 11 patients waiting on stretchers in the emergency department awaiting admittance. It says that between its two campuses, KW and Freeport, there is one bed available out of 660.

“Today we are facing an unprecedented level of pressure across our hospital,” said GRH president Ron Gagnon on Thursday.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic we’ve added 146 additional beds and today, all but one — a remaining bed in our critical care — is filled.”

As of Thursday, the hospital also had four active COVID-19 outbreaks which increased the challenges the hospital was facing.

Gagnon said the hospital may need to begin transferring patients elsewhere but given that hospitals in other areas of the province present similar challenges, that may be no easy task.

“We are working as hard and fast as we can to find available beds and team members to staff them,” said Bonnie Camm, executive vice president of clinical services. “This week alone, we’ve opened 13 additional beds including our ICU C unit with four beds and nine beds for alternate level of care patients at our Freeport Campus.

“In most cases, these are patients who would be returning home or to long-term care facilities if it weren’t for the impact of COVID-19 and, in particular, the system-wide outbreaks.”