Wait times at Windsor’s two emergency departments are at an all-time high.
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj tells CTV Windsor the number of people waiting for long periods of time at local hospitals is up 13 per cent.
Windsor-Essex is not alone. Most hospitals in Ontario are reporting an increase in wait times in emergency rooms.
It's not just because of the H3N2 influenza strain.
20 nursing homes in Windsor-Essex are in outbreak status. Their sickest patients have been taken to the hospital, and the facilities will not accept new patients or welcome back others until the outbreak is lifted.
“Patients in our in-patient wards are waiting to be placed somewhere else” says Musyj. “There's about 60 of them. That backs up the system, and at the same time there’s pressure from the community.”
Musyj adds they have had to open 37 more beds to deal with the rise in the number of patients.
The high volume of people in the E-R is also causing concerns among paramedics.
Deputy Chief of EW-EMS, Justin Lammers, says they have had staff wait sometimes for hours to transfer patients into the E-R.
"We will transfer people to the waiting room if they aren't sick enough" says Lammers. "We also transfered patients to the Leamington ER in some cases."
The situation in local hospitals was so serious that EW-EMS took a rare step Sunday. The agency sent out a tweet, asking residents to “utlitize alternative options like clinics and family health teams for a non-urgent matter.”
The Erie St. Clair LHIN has a list of walk-in clinics with locations, hours of operation and contact numbers.
Medical professionals are hoping people can start using these clinics more often to ease the burden on hospitals and paramedics.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is also asking residents who may be sick to avoid visiting loved ones in long term care homes.
