Hawkesbury hospital considers partial closure of emergency department

The Hawkesbury and District General Hospital (HGH) is facing an acute staffing shortagerelated to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant,which hasmanagement considering overnight closures of the emergency department.

In a memo to hospital staffobtained by Radio-Canada, management urgedall "off-duty personnel" to take on additional shifts,particularly nurses but also porters, housekeeping and food servicesstaff.

"The situation is more serious than it has ever been in the course of the pandemic," the New Year's Eve memo said.

"In the 100-year history of HGH, we have not had to close our [emergency department]. The closure has an impact on many families who will be required to travel considerably further for emergency services."

• Ontario hospitals brace for Omicron's impact as 100s of staff call in sick

The hospital alreadyclosed its ICU in November due to a shortage of critical-care nurses, as well aspostpone many non-life-saving surgeries.

Dr. Julie Maranda, medical chief of staff at HGH, said the hospital worksnight and day to avoid getting to the brink.

"When you have a staff of [700] to 800 hundred, 76 sick calls in one day is scary," Maranda said.

The hospital doesn't have access to rapid-antigen testingbut hasenough to sort through toshorten the time required for some staff to get back to work.

"We've managed to bring back some employees to work maybe sooner than we thought, without compromising patient safety and without bringing anybody who is high risk within the walls of the hospital," she said.

While the hospital has filled out its staffing schedule for the next two weeks,Maranda said it could allbe thrown into disarray bymore illness.

"We're doing the essential and not much more."

Outbreak at hospital

HGH declared a COVID-19 outbreak in one of its in-patient units Tuesday, according to a update on its website.

"It's been difficult for the morale of our employees," Maranda said.

The outbreak is small and contained, she said,but fits the definition of a hospital outbreak because it involves at least two cases within 14 days.

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, medical officer of health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, said the outbreak is an additional stress at a facility already facing absenteeism.

But he said the region hasn't reached the point of allowing some infected health-care workers to stay on the job to keep hospitals open, like what's happened in Quebec.

HGH said all patients in itsMedicine-Surgery Unit are being isolated and screened for COVID-19, but the origin of the outbreak isn't known. It's led to tighter rules around visiting patients.

In a statement, Ontario's Ministry of Health says it has been advised the hospitalhas found ways to keep its emergency department open in the short term.

The ministry says "a number of activities are underway to support deployment and assignment of staff to maintain service delivery," including work with other local health-care providers.

The provincealso updated its testing and isolation guidelines, allowing shorter isolation periods for health-care workers in order to maintain critical services.