The emergency department at the Almonte General Hospital in Almonte, Ont. will be temporarily closed Saturday.
The Mississippi River Health Alliance (MRHA) said in a news release Saturday that the closure would be in effect from 3 p.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday. The rest of the hospital will remain open and care for patients continues.
The emergency department will be closed because of a staffing shortage, the hospital says.
Comments closedThe largest union in Nova Scotia says “extreme shortages” are expected in emergency departments during the holidays as many health-care workers are off work and there aren’t enough staff to cover absences.
Sandra Mullen, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, said the issue is especially pronounced at the Halifax Infirmary, one of the busiest hospitals in the province.
Comments closedWith COVID-19 cases and other respiratory illnesses rising across the region, some area hospitals have begun to bring back face mask requirements to halt the spread of infections.
Boston Medical Center said Thursday it would resume masking requirements in all patient-care areas beginning Friday. On Monday, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reinstated its mask requirements in all clinical and public spaces, and the Beth Israel Lahey Health system (BILH) updated its policies to require masking for all health care personnel upon entry to a patient room or bed space.
Comments closedStaffing shortages will close a Hamilton urgent care centre for two days at the same time city emergency departments are becoming increasingly congested with flu, COVID-19 and RSV patients.
With just 13 per cent of Hamiltonians getting a COVID shot in the past six months, local hospitals are bracing for the viral surge to continue climbing over the holidays.
Comments closedWindsor Regional Hospital has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at its Ouellette Campus.
The outbreak was declared on its 8 West unit on Dec. 20, with a total of three patients affected.
Comments closedNew Brunswick reported two more deaths from COVID-19, a week-over-week jump in hospitalizations and nursing home outbreaks because of the virus, and an increase in flu cases and hospitalizations Tuesday.
Comments closedQuebec Health Minister Christian Dubé and his chief public health officer warned Tuesday that the province is facing a major COVID-19 resurgence, coupled with a spike in influenza cases.
“We have a lot of vulnerable people that (are being hospitalized) because of influenza and because of COVID, and they should have been vaccinated,” Dubé said at a news conference.
“I think that the situation over the next few weeks will deteriorate. Let’s be clear about that.”
Comments closedTo reduce pressure on overflowing emergencies, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, asks people with non-emergency problems to practice self-care, contact their family doctor, family medicine group (GMF) or the 811 phone line instead of going to the hospital. He noted that 28 winter clinics are open and that agreements have recently been reached with residential settings to accommodate seniors trapped in hospital due to the lack of CHSLD spaces.
Emergency rooms are facing a “perfect storm”, says Christian Dubé: a cocktail of seasonal viruses, staff holidays (“earned”), a labour shortage (bigger than last year) and a lack of hospital beds with the aging population as a backdrop.
Comments closedHospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America’s health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC’s tracking shows.
“COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly,” the agency said in its weekly update. “Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas.”
Comments closedAlberta hospitals are squeezing in extra intensive care unit beds as respiratory virus cases balloon and ICUs fill up.
Alberta Health Services has added 17 adult surge beds since last week — 12 in Edmonton and 5 in Calgary— bringing the total to 240.
Comments closedAn outbreak of COVID-19 has been declared on the fifth floor of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
As of Thursday, a total of 10 hospital-acquired cases had been attributed to the outbreak. All patients are experiencing mild illness, an Island Health official said.
Comments closedThe Kingston General Hospital says a surge of emergency department inpatients, including a day that had a near record 580 admissions, has the hospital struggling to keep up as the respiratory virus season peaks across the province.
Comments closedWith a surge of patients with respiratory illnesses being cared for in its hallways, the Kingston Health Sciences Centre is reminding people to stay home if they’re feeling sick to cut back the spread — even if it means missing that holiday party.
Comments closedThe Vitalité Health Network said on Friday that the population should now wear a mask in the environment of direct patient care at the Centre…
Comments closedIt’s time for our society to admit that we’ve made a mistake and change course. The COVID-is-mild experiment, despite the wishing and the hoping, has been a tragic failure. We aren’t just accepting ongoing hospitalizations and deaths to protect the economy, but also ignoring the social and economic costs of continuing high levels of acute infections. Worse still are more cases of Long COVID, a condition that takes many people entirely out of the workforce. And with every wave, the staffing attrition worsens.
Comments closedIt’s been more than a year since Gwen Gilbert first raised questions about her daughter’s death at the hospital in Yorkton, Sask.
Teary-eyed, Gilbert echoed the same questions at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Wednesday.
Comments closedAfter 2023, funding for Covid-related services is set to end in BC.
For nearly four years now, British Columbians have been grappling with Covid-19. We’re currently aided by health management initiatives like vaccination, testing, and protective equipment for healthcare workers. Since 2021, these measures have been funded by BC’s Pandemic Recovery Contingencies, a three-year plan that also sustains economic recovery programs and supports for vulnerable community members.
This plan expires at the end of 2023. After that, our government anticipates that “most initiatives will wind down or be integrated into existing government programs.”
Comments closed
