Pediatric ICUs in Ontario are running over capacity: Provincial data

Toronto – Ontario’s pediatric intensive care units are running over capacity and general hospitals are now accepting children who are healthy enough to leave the ICU, The Canadian Press has learned.

There were 122 children in pediatric ICUs as of Wednesday, up from 111 the day before, according to the Critical Care Services Ontario daily census. Only her five children in the ICU have been infected with her COVID-19. The state has a total of 112 children’s intensive care beds.

Children’s hospitals in Ontario were overwhelmed this past month, largely due to influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, as it broke out a month earlier than usual.

The agency that oversees Ontario’s health care system has instructed general and regional hospitals to take children who are healthy enough to leave the intensive care unit but need hospitalization until they recover, Ontario said. Chris Simpson, Ph.D., chief medical officer for state health, said.

“As soon as they’re ready to take the next step, they move on,” says Simpson.

“From a capacity perspective, patient flow is very important.”

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The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa has opened a second ICU to cope with an “unprecedented surge”. We have canceled non-urgent surgeries and redeployed staff to meet demand. Similar situations are hitting children’s hospitals in Toronto and Hamilton.

Simpson said hospitals will use a “dimmer switch” for surgeries, rather than canceling them outright as they have done during some of the worst waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We just want to get away from that blunt force and encourage hospitals to dial back and up as needed to accommodate these surging forces,” Simpson said.

Simpson said there are about 250,000 backlog surgeries. He said this is about the same number as before the pandemic, but people are now waiting longer to have those surgeries — about 45% waiting longer than the clinically determined norm. There is

He said they were making progress on the backlog.

“This surge could slow our progress on that front a bit,” Simpson said.

Last week, the Ontario Department of Health directed general hospitals to accept patients over the age of 14 who need intensive care.

But CHEO says the majority of patients are under the age of five.

Also, statistics from Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance, an Ontario-wide system that monitors hospital registration records in real time, show that children and adolescents visit emergency departments at two to three times the normal rate during this time. I am undergoing medical examination.

In the past week, an average of 1,414 children aged 4 and under visited emergency departments, compared with a seven-day average of 560. From age 5 to her age of 17, she had an average of 1,210 emergency room visits in the past week, compared to her average of 325 visits in the past week.

Simpson said the hospital is so understaffed that the only way to deal with the surge is to redeploy staff.

“We just need to adjust them to the demands of the moment, which means we need to slow down other things,” he said.

Ontario’s health team meets daily, he said.

“I think we’ve got a good plan, so I’m a lot less worried than I was a few weeks ago,” Simpson said. And I think it’s really just preparation.”

A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the government is “working to reduce the pressure of emergency care and to ensure that all patients receive the care they need. We are in constant contact with our partners.”

“The Minister recently spoke with the CEO of the Children’s Hospital and offered the government’s full support to help them through this difficult time,” said Hannah Jensen.

This report by the Canadian Press was first published on November 10, 2022.