Rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations may further reduce care, doctor warns
CTV
As COVID-19 cases threaten to overwhelm hospitals in several parts of Canada, one doctor is warning that hospitalizations are reaching record highs in some provinces, which could further reduce general hospital care for the foreseeable future.
Dr. Tasleem Nimjee, the physician lead for the COVID-19 emergency response at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday that her hospital is "very stretched" already.
"The number of patients that we're admitting every day is very, very high. We have many days where we're admitting an average of 20 patients a day and you can imagine at some point that just becomes no longer feasible," Nimjee said.
She explained that the "flow" of a hospital's ability to function and provide effective and efficient aid can become "very tight" if there's a sudden surge of patients that require care.
Nimjee says hospitals in Ontario are filling up at an alarming rate. According to provincial data, there were 480 people in hospital due to COVID-19 two weeks ago. As of Monday, there are nearly 2,500 patients in hospitals.
