The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions has put out a press release questioning Sudbury Regional Hospital's ability to handle the H1N1 (swine flu) virus should the amounts of people with the illness increase again.
The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) / CUPE represents 25,000 hospital nurses and support and clerical staff at hospitals throughout Ontario.
Canada's chief public health officer says the virus's second wave high point is still a "few weeks" away, said OCHU president Michael Hurley, in the press release. The union says a third wave of the illness may also be coming.
“Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health says Sudbury is 'quite busy' with flu activity and Sudbury Regional Hospital has 'reached and exceeded' capacity after reported a 30 per cent surge in visits, been forced to transfer patients to other institutions and cancelled up to 47 surgeries out of concern for protection of critical care beds,” said Hurley.
"That's why we're calling on local officials and the Ministry of Health to disclose the real current occupancy rates at SRH and tell us how many ICU beds are available.”
"This information is essential in order to know how much money from the $600 million Ontario has budgeted for H1N1 should be earmarked for Sudbury to add ICU beds and to step up hospital cleaning. Diseases like H1N1 can spread in a hospital environment without vigorous attention to infection control," said Dave Shelefontiuk, president of CUPE Local 1623, representing workers staff at Sudbury Regional Hospital.
As of Nov. 23, Sudbury Regional Hospital reported on its website that six patients with confirmed or probable H1N1 virus were on ventilators in the critical care department and a total of 24 patients were admitted to the hospital with confirmed H1N1 or influenza-like symptoms.
No surgeries were cancelled Nov. 23 because of the effect of H1N1 patients on the system.
A flu assessment centre set up to take pressure off Sudbury Regional Hospital during the H1N1 outbreak was closed last week because fewer people were seeking care for influenza-like illness.
Sudbury Regional Hospital officials have been contacted to respond to the OCHU press release. Check back to NorthernLife.ca for their response.
Messages were also left for Hurley and Shelefontiuk to speak further about the information in the press release.
Shelefontiuk said in the press release "thorough H1N1 protection requires better guidelines on vaccinations for all hospital staff in order that we minimize the spread of infection and our most recent data shows that about 1,900 out of 3,400 hospital staff have been vaccinated so far."
Hurley and Shelefontiuk expressed fear that some may even be turned away if the H1N1 peaks again.
"A 2006 study used by the Ontario Health Ministry predicted influenza admissions to Ontario hospitals reaching 1823 per day with demand on ICU resources hitting 171 per cent of bed capacity and proposed a Triage protocol that could limit who might get admitted," Hurley said.
"Triage protocols developed in Ontario after SARS plan for the eventuality that decisions may need to be made to deny access to ventilators to some patients based on their likelihood of survival, should the surge in patients overwhelm resources.”
