Health Alliance intensive care beds at full capacity: Marshall
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Chatham-Kent Health Alliance’s intensive care unit is at full capacity, with half of that being occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the hospital.
During the Sept. 16 media call, hospital president and CEO Lori Marshall said she was deeply concerned, adding that it leaves much uncertainty as to what comes next.
“I am both disheartened and quite worried about our situation,” she said. “Definitely a very different situation than we were sitting in even a month ago … as a community and the hospital.”
Out of 10 ICU beds, five are occupied by COVID-19 patients. Two patients are on ventilators, one of them being COVID-19-positive. In total, 16 people with the virus are in hospital. Thirteen are not fully vaccinated, while three people are.
Marshall urged people to get vaccinated if they haven’t already done so.
“It is my plea to the community,” she said. “It is the best thing we can do to protect ourselves and others. Recognizing that there are some individuals who cannot be vaccinated, it is the best thing we can do overall.”
Marshall said as of Sept. 16 and Sept. 17, the hospital wasn’t making any surgical cancellations, but stressed she couldn’t predict any further into the future.
“We’ve all heard this tune before,” she said. “In terms of when the hospitals become overwhelmed, the only outlet that we have is to reduce our scheduled care, and that impacts then on surgical patients.
“We are not doing that at this stage, but it is something I am really worried and concerned about, that we may have to go down that road again.”
Dr. David Colby, Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health, said too many people are still believing lies about the vaccine and notes that hospitals are feeling the brunt of the misinformation and disinformation.
“I’ve been warning people that (the full ICU) was going to happen because of Delta for many weeks now,” he said. “And here we are. It’s imperative that people put aside these myths that the vaccine is untested, myths that the vaccine is unsafe, myths that the vaccine is ineffective.
“How frustrated am I? On a scale of one to 10, it’s up in the thousands.”
Colby touched on the Chatham rally held a day earlier for People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier, saying many supporters are against vaccination for multiple reasons.
“Some people think that it’s inappropriate coercion by the government,” Colby said. “Trying to keep people safe is one of the most important things that a government can do.
“There are other people who buy into these conspiracy theories that have really all been debunked. And I don’t really want to give them any more time than they deserve.”
Chatham-Kent’s total number of active cases dropped by one and now sits at 115. There were 19 new cases, with 20 resolved. The cumulative case total since the pandemic began is 2,269.
Riverview Gardens has two staff cases, but Colby said transmission isn’t from inside the facility.
“That’s not an outbreak. But we do have … some isolations happening and some testing going on,” he said.
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