Some Ottawa Hospital patients being moved to gymnasium as part of surge plans

The Ottawa Hospital’s surge plan during the Omicron wave includes moving some patients to a gymnasium at the Rehabilitation Centre, CTV News has learned.

This comes as hospitals across the province face a record number of COVID-19 patients.

Friday, Ontario set a pandemic record: 2,472 patients in hospital across the province; a figure not only higher than the peak in wave three but one that comes at a time where the healthcare system is even further strained than it was in April.

“On Friday, we were at about 115 per cent capacity and I understand from my team members for the union there that that has got significantly worse over the weekend,” Rachel Muir, a Registered Nurse at The Ottawa Hospital and bargaining unit president for the Ontario Nurses Association union at the hospital.

Sixty-four Ottawa residents are hospitalized because of COVID-19, five of them in the ICU, according to Ottawa Public Health, but the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 is much higher. Internal figures from The Ottawa Hospital show there 126 COVID-positive patients Monday, with 13 in the ICU.

In a statement Friday, The Ottawa Hospital announced it would implement the next phase of its surge plan, including increasing bed capacity, redeploying staff, and adjusting the staffing model.

“In some cases, this may mean that patients receive care in unconventional spaces. These spaces are being adjusted to ensure that patient safety, comfort and experience are all maintained,” the hospital wrote in a statement.

The gymnasium is one of those unconventional spaces.

The Ottawa Hospital could not say how many additional beds the new measures would provide but some healthcare workers are concerned it could lead to more staffing challenges.

“We are in a staffing crisis and to add more beds just makes that worse because we don’t have adequate staff for the beds we have,” Muir said.

“It means higher patient ratios; so where nurses normally would be looking after four or five patients, now they will be looking after six, seven, eight patients,” she added.

Along with staffing challenges, Muir says the new surge protocol will make it more difficult for nurses to do their jobs, tasked with caring for more patients in areas that can be ill-equipped to do so.

“You’re in spaces that are not meant to have patients in them so it means you have to bring in things like oxygen canisters if that’s what they need. You have to set up other ways of patients contacting you, because you don’t have call bell systems,” Muir said.

“You don’t have bathrooms, you don’t have shower facilities, because these areas are not meant to house patients, so everything you would normally take for granted, you don’t have. It’s just inherently more difficult,” she continued.

According to The Ottawa Hospital there are between 125 and 135 staff members currently isolating because of COVID-19. Ottawa Public Health has declared 20 outbreaks in hospitals across the city.

“It is more challenging now than it was in the past and of course it’s more challenging now than it’s ever been, even pre-COVID-19 era,” infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch said.

Despite the rapid rise in hospitalizations across Ontario, Ottawa’s ICU numbers have remained relatively steady but those on the frontlines argue even smaller numbers are still concerning.

“Even if it hasn’t yet reached a level that’s been seen before, that doesn’t tell the entire story and the more significant part of the story is who’s there working and how hard are they working,” Bogoch said.

“Our ICU numbers, you’re right they’re not as high as they were before, but we don’t have as many nurses; so they are as high as they were before when you look at the nurse/patient ratios,” Muir added.

Bogoch says it’s difficult to predict when Ontario’s hospitals will see some reprieve but says he is hopeful the situation could begin to ameliorate near the end of the month.

“It’s hard to know when we’ll start to see cases decline because we don’t really have a very accurate depiction of what the true burden is in Ontario,” he said.