Thread by @KingstonHSC

The following is a message to #ygk and the 500,000 patients we serve across SE Ontario. As #COVID19 measures have eased across the province, life is starting to feel a little more normal. But at here at #myKHSC it’s not business as usual. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. 🧵👇

Thankfully we’re not yet seeing an increase in COVID hospitalizations. But, over the last two years many people have seen delays in care or have stayed home when they needed care. Now, we’re seeing higher volumes than ever before of very sick patients who need our help.

To complicate matters, like many hospitals across Canada we are experiencing critical staffing shortages, making it difficult to provide the same level of care as we did before. Currently more KHSC staff are calling in sick with COVID than at any time during the pandemic.

On many days, in many units, we don’t have enough staff provide pre-pandemic levels of care. The last few weeks has been all-hands on deck. We’re redeploying staff where they're needed most, adding support staff, & hospital leaders are pitching in to help ease the load.

Most importantly, KHSC staff have stepped up in every way imaginable. They are working overtime and caring for more patients each shift. But after two years they’re burnt out. We continue to recruit, hire and train new staff every day, but it’s not enough. We need your help.

COVID rates are very high in our region, much higher than other areas of the province. In fact, wastewater monitoring in #ygk shows rates higher than during the Omicron peak. This latest wave is pushing our team beyond capacity as our staff contract COVID out in the community.

We know hospitalizations appear a few weeks after a surge in cases. Our staffing shortages, combined with high patient volumes, could be further complicated by a rising number of COVID patients who need inpatient care. It could be the recipe for a very difficult spring.

We’re asking for your help, we urge you to use caution. Stay home if you feel sick. Wash your hands. Mask indoors if distancing is a challenge. Limit contact with those experiencing symptoms. Get all the COVID-19 vaccines for which you are eligible, it is safe & effective.

If you need health care in the coming weeks, we ask you to consider where you can best access services. Do you have a less urgent need? Call your family doctor or try a walk-in clinic. Help make sure our Emergency Department is caring for those who need it most.

Have questions about where to go for care? Ensure you get the right care in the right place: kingstonhsc.ca/report/right-p…. If you have worsening COVID symptoms book a clinical assessment appointment at the Beechgrove Assessment Centre.

While we continue to go through this difficult stretch, we ask for your understanding. This pandemic has been hard on all of us, please show kindness to our healthcare teams, we’re all just as tired of COVID as you are. But unfortunately COVID isn’t finished with us yet.

Be kind to each other as well. It’s been a tough two years and many are living with the mental health impacts of COVID-19. Offer those around you a little TLC. Be patient with yourself too. We will get through this together.