Dear triad members,
Last night we received a memo from Matt Anderson, President and CEO of Ontario Health, that outlines the severity of the situation in hospitals due to the increase in COVID-19 cases.
Ontario is facing a severe crisis with hospital capacity due to the surging number of cases. The positive COVID-19 cases announced today was over 4,200 – the second highest number since the pandemic began. The pressure on hospitals’ critical care capacity is extreme. As a result, Ontario Health has instructed hospitals to ramp down all elective surgeries and non-emergent/non-urgent activities to preserve critical care and human resource capacity as of Monday, April 12, at 12:01 AM. This does not currently apply to hospitals in the Northern Ontario Health Region or pediatric specialty hospitals.
In the ADM memo we shared yesterday with the EDs and administrative leads, PHUs have been asked by the Ministry to utilise primary care to their full capacity in the mobile team vaccination efforts and in contacting eligible patients to encourage they vaccinate. This includes anyone aged 18 and older in high-risk communities, as announced on April 7.
There will be pop-up and mobile clinics for those aged 18 and older in high-risk communities at essential workplaces, in community centres, and in public spaces. At this time, people aged 18 to 49 cannot book online; mass vaccination sites will be adhering to older age cut-offs and other eligibility criteria, as noted on the online booking page. Communication about this to patients will be critical.
Teams are encouraged by the Ministry to work with their PHU to be clear on eligible patients and to optimise the use of primary care in delivering the vaccines.
You will also soon receive a memo from the Ministry requesting that teams who are in identified hot spots (about 30+), where hospital capacity has reached its limits, help support the care of mild to moderate COVID-19 patients in their homes with the COVID@Home program. You may hear from your Senior Program Consultant, who will check to see what kind of capacity you have for this initiative, including extending support to patients of non-affiliated physicians in your community.
As part of the COVID@Home initiative, the Ministry of Health has procured a stockpile of oxygen saturation monitors to be distributed to primary care professionals and teams to provide enhanced monitoring of their COVID-19 positive patients at home. To learn more, the Ontario College of Family Physicians has shared a webcast explaining COVID@Home with Dr. Dee Mangin from their most recent Family Medicine Summit.
We have requested a meeting for teams early next week with the Ministry and/or Ontario Health to support teams who have questions. We will share that information as soon as we have it.
For today, please reach out to your public health unit, if you have not already, to help support community-wide vaccination efforts. All needed care for your patients remains critical. However, as this is a dire situation that Ontario is facing, we encourage you assess your ability to support the vaccination efforts and to help relieve strain on the hospitals to the best of your capacity.
We will continue to keep you posted as we learn more. These are incredibly challenging times, and primary care will be critical in ensuring we get through them.
Thank you for the work you are doing. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@afhto.ca.
Yours in good health,
The AFHTO team
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