As other Ontario hospitals start to resume services, Hamilton remains a COVID 'hot spot'

As hospitals across Ontario start preparing to resume non-urgent surgeries, Hamilton "continues to be a relative hot spot" where hospitals are over capacity and patients are being transferred out of the region.

That's according to the heads of Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, who told reporters Monday that they're still in a resource crunch. 

"Hospitals in Hamilton will proceed cautiously with ramp-up plans, although, frankly, I cannot see ramping up happening in a significant way for at least a few weeks," said Rob MacIsaac, CEO of HHS. 

The sentiment was shared by Melissa Farrell, president of St. Joe's.

"We're seeing some of the trends really show us that we've hit a peak and we're moving through that," she said. "Although it's great to hear that we've passed the peak, we have to emphasize that we're still dealing with the capacity and staffing pressures, and we still expect this to actually continue over the coming months."

MacIsaac said HHS is at 110 per cent capacity, and hospitals are still being forced to transfer patients out of the region.

"We are also seeing the effects of what we think will be a long and lasting COVID hangover: deferred care from the previous ramp-downs and people putting off seeking care because of the pandemic are straining local hospitals."

The effect of this "hangover" will be seen in a "less healthy population," MacIsaac said, which means the city will be seeing crowded emergency departments for a while.

Deficiencies were already there

"The pandemic has really shone a bright light on deficiencies on our health-care system, deficiencies that existed in many respects long before the advent of COVID."

Michelle Baird, COVID-19 operations chief with Hamilton Public Health Services, said Hamilton is seeing signs of a plateau.

That includes "a decrease in per cent positivity of those being tested," she said. "And we're seeing some preliminary decreases being seen in the number of new hospitalizations and ICU admissions for COVID-19 reported each day."

Hamilton's positivity rates have decreased significantly since the city's last update, from 26.8 per cent to 14.6 per cent. 

The city recently declared 10 outbreaks over and four new outbreaks in high-risk facilities in Hamilton. There are currently 44 outbreaks in high-risk facilities, the city says, compared to the 80 active outbreaks as of Jan. 24.

Vaccine rates decreasing

The city is also seeing reduced vaccination uptakes, Baird said.

"We're seeing sort of a declining uptake, particularly among our mass vaccination clinics, and that's why we're starting to move back to that last mile strategy and look for opportunities to bring vaccines to places that are more easily accessible to people." 

Overall, 86.8 per cent of Hamiltonians aged five years and older have received a vaccine. Of those, 49.7 per cent of children have received a first dose, while 21.7 per cent are fully vaccinated, which is an increase from 13 per cent two weeks ago.