WINDSOR, ONT. -- Windsor Regional Hospital is starting to see a higher number of patients visit both the Met and Ouellette campus.
A sign that patients are starting to seek medical attention for issue they’ve put off, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are seeing legitimate emergencies, these are patients who are coming to our emergency room who legitimately need to be in our emergency room,” says Chief of Staff Dr. Wassim Saad.
As a result, Saad says they are presenting late with symptoms of heart attack and stroke.
Due to a busier emergency room, Essex Windsor EMS experienced a backlog this week.
They tell CTV Windsor for a brief moment on Sunday, around 6:30 p.m., they entered into code black, meaning the number of available ambulances was zero.
Saad says handling the ER is always a struggle.
“Partly because we have some staff that work across the border in the U.S., and we’re having some issues of having them come over here and be safe in terms of their practice,” says Saad.
Some good news, however - operating rooms are being used more frequently, but the hospital is still playing catch up.
“As we started to open up, we went very quickly within a week to 30 per cent then another week to 40 per cent. Now we’re sitting at about 60 percent capacity.”
Visitor restrictions remain in place at Windsor Regional Hospital. According to the hospital, they are not looking at removing those restrictions any time soon, and are asking the public remain patient.
