With a workforce already feeling 'tremendous fatigue,' local hospitals brace for next wave of COVID-19

Waterloo region's three hospitals are preparing for the next wave of COVID-19, but they say the community needs to know health-care workers are exhausted and hospitals are nearly full to capacity, so people need to help curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

On Friday, there were 17 people in the region's three hospitals who were infectious with COVID-19. There were also five people in the intensive care unit, although not everyone in ICU is still infectious with the virus.

Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener, said more people are expected to be admitted to hospitals in the coming weeks as the Omicron variant drives case rates higher in what public health officials called a tsunami.

"It feels like the waves are growing quickly," Fairclough said Friday during a regional COVID-19 media briefing.

She said the hospitals are working together to respond to the new cases on a collaborative effort and the hope is they can minimize situations where patients may need to be moved to out-of-region hospitals.

But Patrick Gaskin, president of Cambridge Memorial Hospital, said the community needs to understand what increased cases will mean for local hospitals. He likened the current COVID-19 situation to the idea of when someone smells smoke, they should alert the fire department.

"This is the time to pull the fire alarm," he said.

System 'very stretched'

While all three hospitals in the region have increased the number of beds since the start of the pandemic, Fairclough says all of them are at, or exceeding, capacity.

"We know that people are waiting" for beds, she said.

Bonnie Camm, executive vice president of clinical services at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, said the hospital is regularly at more than 95 per cent capacity, while key areas such as medicine, stroke, oncology and mental health are "beyond 100 per cent."

"The system overall is very, very stretched," Camm said.

In Cambridge, Gaskin said they have less than 10 beds available to support COVID-19 patients.

"It is critical that we do all we can to minimize the impact to the healthcare system," he said.

'Hardest wave yet is about to hit us'

On top of that, all three said health-care workers at area hospitals are eager to help but are beyond exhausted.

"The hardest wave yet is about to hit us and as a health-care system, we stand at the ready to support our community, but we need everyone pulling together in order to make this as successful as possible," Gaskin said.

Camm said Grand River Hospital is seeing "tremendous fatigue" in its workforce. Even still, workers agree to take on additional shifts and extended hours willingly.

But when people come into the hospital and the emergency department, "they may need to wait," she said.

"Be kind to our staff," she reminded people. "Everyone is doing the best they can for our community."