Cancer and heart surgeries postponed at the MUHC to free up beds as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge
As COVID-19 hospitalizations pile up in Quebec, some cancer and heart surgeries at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) are being postponed to free up hospital beds.
With 427 more Quebecers admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours, staff across the province continue to look for space to treat them but many emergency rooms are exceeding capacity.
Inside the Jewish General Hospital, the special COVID treatment unit has reached full capacity for the very first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
People who tested positive in recent days are steadily showing up at the ER and the administration is running out of room and staff to treat them.
“I think people have to realize that an ICU bed is more than a bed is more than a room with a bed in it,” said Dr. Blair Carl Schwartz, attending physician at the Jewish General Hospital.
“In order to have a critically ill patient cared for, you’re looking at the critical care physicians, the pharmacists, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, the housekeepers to keep the room and the infrastructures and the folks doing the stocking. There's more to it than the physical bed.”
To make room, hospitals are now unloading semi-urgent cases. Surgeries that are not critical are being transferred or postponed, a move that frees up beds and staff and mostly affects non-COVID patients.
“So, we’ll say: what surgeries can wait and what surgeries can't wait? Look at the limited number of operating rooms that we have and try to make sure that we do it in both a fashion that causes the least harm to the general population, but also allows us to have the capacity to operate."
The MUHC is also cancelling or postponing heart surgeries and some cancer operations. Currently, at least 20,000 health-care workers in Quebec are temporarily off the job due to COVID-19, with another 50,000 away from work for other reasons, most of which include burnout.
“I was going home and had to isolate and just be by myself,” said Naveed Hussain, a MUHC nurse.
“It's a feeling that sucks because I want to be at work. I want to be able to help my colleagues. I want to be able to be a leader and be able to help others.”
NURSES BURNED OUT
The government has imposed a decree preventing nurses from taking time off, which is on top of their obligation to do overtime.
Their unions say this could be a recipe for disaster.
“Institutions have to understand if you're imposing forced overtime on the nurses today, is she still going to be in your institution a month from now? Two months from now?” said Natalie Stake-Doucet, a registered nurse and president of the Quebec Nurses Association.
Quebec reported a total of 2,133 hospitalizations on Friday, with those numbers expected to reach 3,000 by mid-January, according to the province.
Unvaccinated people continue to be overrepresented in Quebec's hospitalization statistics. Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé has said unvaccinated people make up about 10 per cent of adults, but represent more than 50 per cent of intensive care patients.
These are hospital admissions that could have been prevented, said Dr. Schwartz.
“Every time we see someone who made a conscious decision to not get vaccinated, that's just like one bit of our soul sometimes that I think just dies,” he said.
The pandemic surge means the Lachine Hospital emergency room will not be open overnight anytime soon. The hospital's ER has only been open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. since early November and was set to resume taking patients overnight. However, the reopening has been put off as too many health-care workers are sick.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.