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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toro...cupancy-covid-19-hallway-healthcare-1.5784075
Why Ontario hospitals are full to bursting, despite few COVID-19 patients
Acute care wards of many major hospitals running above 95% occupancy, even before flu season hits
Mike Crawley ? CBC News ? Posted: Nov 02, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 11 hours ago
Some of Ontario's largest hospitals are nearing or exceeding full capacity even before flu season and the second wave of COVID-19 bring an expected surge in new patients.
Data obtained by CBC News shows that the acute care wards of a dozen major hospitals were filled above 95 per cent of their funded capacity for more than half the days in September and early October.
Those rates significantly exceed the province's maximum occupancy target of 85 per cent. That was set earlier this year for hospitals to get the green light to resume scheduled surgeries, such as organ transplants, cancer operations and cardiac surgeries, basically halted during the pandemic's first wave.
Many of the hospitals running at or over capacity are in Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area, the regions hit hardest by COVID-19 cases this fall. However some hospitals outside those regions are also full to bursting, including in Sudbury, Hamilton, the Niagara region, and Peterborough.
The data suggests many hospitals have returned to the overcrowding levels seen before the pandemic, when CBC News revealed hospitals filled beyond capacity nearly every single day, with patients housed in hallways, conference rooms and cafeterias not as exceptional cases, but as a matter of routine...
Why Ontario hospitals are full to bursting, despite few COVID-19 patients
Acute care wards of many major hospitals running above 95% occupancy, even before flu season hits
Mike Crawley ? CBC News ? Posted: Nov 02, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 11 hours ago
Some of Ontario's largest hospitals are nearing or exceeding full capacity even before flu season and the second wave of COVID-19 bring an expected surge in new patients.
Data obtained by CBC News shows that the acute care wards of a dozen major hospitals were filled above 95 per cent of their funded capacity for more than half the days in September and early October.
Those rates significantly exceed the province's maximum occupancy target of 85 per cent. That was set earlier this year for hospitals to get the green light to resume scheduled surgeries, such as organ transplants, cancer operations and cardiac surgeries, basically halted during the pandemic's first wave.
Many of the hospitals running at or over capacity are in Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area, the regions hit hardest by COVID-19 cases this fall. However some hospitals outside those regions are also full to bursting, including in Sudbury, Hamilton, the Niagara region, and Peterborough.
The data suggests many hospitals have returned to the overcrowding levels seen before the pandemic, when CBC News revealed hospitals filled beyond capacity nearly every single day, with patients housed in hallways, conference rooms and cafeterias not as exceptional cases, but as a matter of routine...