🏥⛺️ #HamOnt's new mobile health unit will soon be ready to receive patients. Even with cases falling, experts say, the facility plays an important part in the fight against COVID-19. Hamilton Health Sciences' MHU is set to be ready for patients as of May 31. [1/9] 
https://twitter.com/joshxsherman/status/1398003016620457996
The new 1,580-square-metre facility is the second such MHU provided to the province by the federal government. The first mobile unit opened on April 30 in the parking lot of the Bayview Campus of Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. [2/9]
On May 25, Sunnybrook said its MHU had no patients or plans to admit more soon, since hospitalizations declined. It says “the facility will be maintained for the foreseeable future" and teams mobilized should the need arise. Hamilton’s may also remain on standby. [3/9]
In Toronto and Hamilton, hospital officials say, a lot of advance planning was needed for the MHUs. Prior to building, hospital staff worked with contractors to identify each site’s needs — for example, which layout would best enable the movement of staff and patients. [4/9]
In Hamilton, contractors spent two weeks levelling the lot, removing curbs, and checking to make sure drainage would be adequate before beginning construction last month. Staff also required orientations to learn emergency procedures and where things are. [5/9]
Robert Burgess, Sunnybrook’s senior director of emergency preparedness, says the military-like appearance of Sunnybrook's 84-bed MHU made some of the 30-some patients it's treated nervous. But, he says, the well-lit, sophisticated inside soon put them more at ease. [6/9]
“You can certainly provide care in this environment, if you do it in a careful fashion,” he says. But, Burgess notes, caring for patients in a bricks and mortar hospital is preferable. The MHU only admitted patients recovering from COVID-19/nearing the end of their stays. [7/9]
Kelly Campbell, HHS’s VP of corporate services and capital development says it's good to know the Hamilton MHU is ready. “We could still have a fourth wave,” she says. “We’ll work with the province and the region, and, if they need us, we’ll be there.” [8/9]
Read the full article here: tvo.org/article/how-do…
(Photos courtesy of Hamilton Health Sciences and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) [9/9]
(Photos courtesy of Hamilton Health Sciences and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) [9/9]
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