Emergency departments across the GTA are seeing a substantial increase in the number of patients requiring care. The emergency department staff at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital also see a noticeable increase.
Dr. Keith Martin, Chief of the OTMH Emergency Department and Shannon Tyrrell, Director of the OTMH Emergency Department, concurred that they had seen an increase in acuity of patients coming to OTMH Emergency Department for conditions other than COVID-19.
Several reasons why this is happening
- Patients deferred visiting the Emergency Department until later in their illness. They either hoped their health issue would resolve. Some did not want to put further stress on the healthcare system, and others feared contracting COVID-19 while in hospital.
- Patients whose underlying chronic conditions progressively deteriorated because accessing community-based care during the pandemic was more difficult or stressful, and they now require urgent emergency care.
- Pre-pandemic, elderly and infirm patients typically had more social support/caregiver support, such as check-ins at day programs, church, family visits, etc. They can insidiously deteriorate at home and become much sicker before realizing they require medical help.
- Patients who had elective/non-urgent procedures/surgeries deferred owing to the pandemic (cancelled surgeries, cancelled clinics, etc.) may have exacerbations of their conditions and come to the Emergency Department for pain and/or symptom control.
Even though the stress of COVID-19 on our healthcare system is lessening, it is being replaced by patients with non-covid-related illnesses.
