QHC: staffing challenges, COVID-19 predictions and more

WAVE 6 WANING

The latest waves of COVID-19 infection have increased the demands on medical and other staff at Quinte Health Care hospitals.

However, at Tuesday’s QHC Board of Directors meeting, Vice President Susan Rowe said there are positive signals that wave 6 is coming to an end, at least for the summer.

Rowe told the board daily staff absences lately are much lower than the peak of 130 during the worst of wave 6.

“The test positivity across this region is down to 6.7% which is a far cry from the 19% that we were at about a month ago. And the wastewater (sewage) across the region – all indications are are that we are seeing a dramatic decrease in the number of cases.”

FALL/WINTER COVID 19 PREDICTIONS

Meanwhile Rowe was asked if QHC’s 2,100 staff members could withstand another COVID wave in the fall and winter.

Rowe explained that although having 700 staff members already infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began doesn’t sound good it should be a positive heading into the cold months.

“So there will be natural immunity added to the fact that we have 100% of our staff members have at least two doses of vaccine.”

Eighty per cent of QHC staff have received at least one booster shot.

Meanwhile, flu season was almost non-existent last winter due to lockdowns and people isolating. QHC Chief of Staff Dr. Colin MacPherson is confident that with the ending of COVID restrictions, the flu will be much more prevalent this winter.

STAFF SHORTAGES

Staffing shortages have presented a constant challenge to Quinte Health Care and all other hospital organizations in the province due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

QHC Chief of Staff Dr. Colin MacPherson praised the medical staff for constantly discussing staffing challenges and coming up with creative ideas to better serve their patients.

“ICU physicians have decided they’re going to recruit more than their previous allotment, urology is going up from three to four, obstetrics and gynecology will likely go up in complement without a commensurate change in resources. The idea is that the physicians themselves have decided to redistribute (to mitigate risk).”

QHC is experiencing a shortage of nurses, imaging technicians, and anaesthetists, among other disciplines. There are currently 250 staff vacancies in the organization.

Meanwhile, recruitment efforts have been boosted by the hiring of a recruitment specialist and 58 more staff have been recruited than were lost since January first.

DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING/SURGERY BACKLOGS

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused much higher demand for services at hospitals, and pandemic restrictions along with staff shortages have created a backlog of patients waiting for diagnostic imaging or non-urgent surgery.

However, Quinte Health Care Vice President Jeff Hohenkerk told QHC’s Board of Directors that they are offering patients a way to get their non-urgent scans or X-rays more quickly by going to another hospital.

” … MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Kingston Health Sciences, Brockville, Campbellford, Cobourg, in order to do some of our diagnostic imaging, specifically to CTs and MRIs.”

Hohenkerk says some patients are rejecting the option of travelling elsewhere for diagnostic imaging because of the high price of gasoline these days.

Meanwhile, medical staff are doing the best they can with the surgery backlog, but always high priority procedures will be scheduled first.