In-line with Directive 2, which has been implemented today by the Ontario Government, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) will be postponing non-urgent surgeries, procedures and ambulatory care activity to ensure that we can continue providing urgent and emergent care to those in need. As they have at other points during the pandemic, care teams will identify which surgeries, procedures and ambulatory care activity will be postponed on a case-by-case basis, based on factors such as urgency and the health situation of each patient. If you are scheduled to have surgery at TOH in the coming weeks, your care team will contact you shortly.
As of Wednesday, January 5, we will also add further visitor restrictions at the hospital. Unfortunately, this means that general visitors will not be allowed in the hospital for the foreseeable future. To ensure that patients have the support they need, the hospital will allow one Essential Care Partner at a time for each patient, and continue to make exceptions for visitors based on compassionate grounds.
Health-care workers continue to lead us through this pandemic. They have been called heroes, but they are also human, and have endured so much to ensure that we can continue to provide the essential health-care programs we offer to our community. To help support our health-care workers, we are asking the public to please continue to follow public health guidelines: wear masks, practice good hand hygiene, limit contacts, etc.
Most importantly, please get your COVID-19 vaccine. If you have already received two doses, please ensure you get your booster as well. It is your best defence against the Omicron variant.