The Queensway Carleton Hospital has declared an internal code orange, saying all in-patient care space has already filled beyond capacity.
Hospital officials say they are seeing an unusually high number of admission for influenza this year. There have been more than 90 already.
The hospital also says there is an unusually high number of alternative levels of care patients. These are patients that do not need to be in acute hospital care, but are not well enough to go home. Today there are 56 ALC patients, which is 21% of the hospital's bed capacity.
This is the second time in its history that the Queensway Carleton Hospital has used the internal code orange protocal. The first was in January of this year.
Officials are asking patients to only come to the hospital in an emergency, and to explore other options like walk-in clinics. They say over the last week, emergency volumes have been high for this time of year.
Earlier this week, Ottawa Public Health said the second wave of the flu virus has already hit the capital. Since September, there have been nearly 600 reported flu cases.
