Windsor Regional expecting capacity increase in coming weeks

Windsor, Ont. -

Omicron is spreading rapidly across the province, and in Windsor-Essex the numbers aren’t expected to peak until mid January, according to Windsor Regional Hospital.

“The weeks we have to be concerned about are definitely January 10th and January 17th for sure,” says CEO David Musyj.

During Thursday’s board meeting, Musyj said the healthcare system is about to face difficult times.

Waste water results from the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor show a dramatic rise of the Omicron variant at the end of last year.

“Basically not until almost New Year’s Eve and January,” says Musyj.

This time around, COVID-19 is expected to impact medical bed capacity and not the ICU at the hospital.

“If you had lets say 100 patients admitted with Delta, about 60 to 70 would be on the regular medical wards and about 30-40 would be ICU. Whereas with Omicron that ratio is closer to 90 to 10,” says Dr. Wassim Saad, Chief of Staff.

44 patients are in hospital with COVID-19, including six in ICU.

Windsor Regional is currently operating at 85 per cent capacity.

“We gotta get bed occupancy to a level so we can handle what’s gonna be coming and the estimates of what the province is estimating in addition to what we currently have is being able to add additional beds,” says Musyj.

The hospital continues to speak with St. Clair College about the possibility of field hospital, if needed.

“The issue is gonna be aside from the health Human Resources to be able to run it, is what type of patients can go into it? It does not have diagnostic imaging, it’s not meant for an acute care patient.”