SAH expects to continue receiving out of town patients

While not providing a specific figure, Brandy Sharp Young, Sault Area Hospital (SAH) spokesperson, has confirmed the local hospital “has admitted COVID-19 positive patients from northwestern and southern Ontario. SAH expects to continue to receive patients depending on critical care capacity in our hospital.” 

The province has directed all hospitals, including those in the north, to receive COVID-19 patients as required as the virus puts a strain on ICU capacity in Ontario hot spots such as the GTA. 

“SAH’s ICU is stable. Our professional team in the ICU continues to be in a state of readiness and we are prepared to accept patients who need our help,” Sharp Young wrote in an email.

“Every day, our Critical Care leaders participate in a province-wide discussion that determines where ICU patients may go.”

SAH currently has critical care capacity for 22 patients.

In addition (as of Thursday) “no patients have been moved from SAH to long-term care to make room for out-of-town ICU patients,” Sharp Young wrote.

Health Minister Christine Elliott announced Wednesday hospitals will be granted authority to move patients into long-term care or retirement residences without their consent, a move the provincial government is taking to assist hospitals with high numbers of COVID-19 patients.

Elliott called that a “temporary emergency order” and that “this would be done in only the most urgent of situations when a hospital is at risk of becoming overwhelmed.”