Cambridge Memorial Hospital nears capacity as COVID surges and 69 staff are at home sick

Cambridge Memorial Hospital is bracing for impact as the Omicron tsunami comes ashore in Waterloo region.

As the hospital declared an outbreak in its rehabilitation unit Tuesday, with one patient and one staff member testing positive, manager of public affairs and communications Stephan Beckhoff confirmed in an email to CambridgeToday that 69 staff members are already affected by COVID and are unable to work because of a positive test or suspected case.

News of the staffing impact comes as the need for beds to treat COVID patients saw a steady rise with 19 patients now in hospital for the disease, including those requiring intensive care.

That puts the hospital at 97 per cent occupancy for medicine and surgery beds and 79 per cent full in the intensive care unit.

Across the region, 51 patients are reported to be hospitalized for COVID, including seven in the ICU.

Across the province, the wave in new cases is steadily draining hospital capacity with 1,302 patients in hospital for COVID as of Tuesday morning and 266 in ICU.

During peak hospitalizations for COVID last April, there were about 2,400 patients needing a bed for treatment of the disease, about 900 of them in ICUs.

The region's chief medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told regional councillors Tuesday the province is on the ascending curve of the Omicron wave and she expects to see continued acceleration in the number of cases locally and across the province.

The good news is Omicron hospitalizations are proving to be relatively short, she said. 

But it's the number of people seeking treatment and testing for COVID, not ICU admissions, that is expected to drive a rapid increase in hospitalizations and put enormous strain on the system in the coming weeks.

“Even if only one per cent of those infected require hospital care, the sheer number of those requiring hospital care is projected to overwhelm the healthcare system in January,” she said.

Wang said the region will be focusing on hospitalization numbers and daily positivity rates to get a picture of Omicron's impact since daily case rates are significantly underestimated and will continue to be significantly underestimated going forward.

Beckhoff said CMH will transfer patients to other hospitals if the surge can’t be mitigated inside the hospital when capacity is reached.

Capacity levels are being reported to the province daily and they may initiate transfers between hospitals to help relieve pressures.

So far CMH has not received any patients from out of town and has not sent staff to other facilities to work, Beckhoff said.

Last Friday, Ontario Health directed all hospitals in the province to focus on urgent and emergent needs only, forcing thousands of elective surgeries to be cancelled.

At CMH, that amounted to the postponement of 1,921 elective surgeries until further notice.

The majority of those procedures involve cataract surgery, with 1,387 patients now waiting for a call back once pressure on the system is eased.

The shift to urgent care needs related to COVID also impacted orthopaedic surgery at CMH, with 258 cancellations, 113 general surgeries cancelled, 48 gynaecologic surgeries deferred and 31 urologic surgeries on hold.

The hospital has also been forced to delay 13 paediatric surgeries as it responds to the COVID crunch.