toh

Due to the current rise in COVID-19 cases and health-care staffing shortages, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) is adapting to ensure we can continue providing high-quality patient care to our community.

The hospital is prepared and well-positioned to respond to the increasing needs of our patients. However, as capacity and staffing pressures continue to climb, TOH must implement its next phase of surge plans. This means that we will increase bed capacity, redeploy staff who will be freed up from the ramp down of non-urgent services, and adjust our staffing models. In some cases, this may mean that patients receive care in unconventional spaces. These spaces are being adjusted to ensure that patient safety, comfort and experience are all maintained.

As well, in line with Directive 2 from the Ontario government, TOH is postponing non-urgent surgeries, procedures and ambulatory care activity to ensure that we can continue providing urgent and emergent care to those in need. It is a difficult task to make these decisions and inform patients that their surgery or procedure has been postponed. Care teams are currently identifying 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. Patients whose care is impacted will be contacted in the coming days and weeks.

This pandemic has been difficult, and its longevity has certainly taken its toll on everyone, particularly health-care workers. They have been working on the frontlines of the pandemic for almost two years, keeping our community safe. The best thing that the public can do to support health-care workers is to get their COVID-19 vaccine and booster. It is the best defence against the Omicron variant and will ensure our health-care system is protected.