Quebec hospitals overwhelmed and it's only going to get worse, health officials say

The Quebec government says it's scrambling to find more staff to deal with an anticipated spike in hospitalizations.

The province's health-care research institute, the INESSS, predicts the need for hospital beds will nearly double in the next two weeks and that will likely lead to more surgery delays, but already hospitals across Quebec are at capacity and are load-shedding.

The institute estimates 3,000 hospital beds and another 400 intensive care beds will be needed.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said the hospital situation will be critical over the next two weeks.

"The Omicron wave is really like a tidal wave that is sweeping over all western countries," he said Thursday.

"We are not only seeing an increase in the number of patients in our hospitals, but we are also seeing that we are losing even more staff every day."

Dubé said about 20,000 health-care workers are off the job because they have been infected with the virus.

"We are in consultation with the unions to find the necessary staff to be able to reopen at least 1,000 additional beds," he said.

He said the Omicron wave has not yet hit a plateau and is continuing to spread through the community.

Dubé said about 40 per cent of patients admitted to hospital for other ailments are testing positive for COVID too and that puts additional strain on the system because they have to be isolated and treated differently than those who aren't infected.

He gave an example of a woman who came in to give birth, but tested positive and additional security measures were needed.

Many hospitals are at maximum alert in places like the Eastern Townships, Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec, the health minister said. That means these establishments are increasingly postponing surgeries to free up staff and reassign them to the care of COVID-19 patients.

For example, the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches, which covers the region south of Quebec City from places like Thetford Mines to Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, has dropped services by 50 per cent until Jan. 18.

Dr. Lucie Opatrny, Quebec's associate deputy health minister, said half of hospital surgeries provincewide have been delayed.