Double whammy for Sudbury hospital as number of COVID-19 patients surge

Sudbury -

The Omicron surge has hit Health Sciences North hard, with the Sudbury hospital having to deal with two big challenges: more staff off work with COVID-19 than ever, and a surge of patients in hospital with the disease.

CEO Dominic Giroux said Friday there are currently 61 patients at HSN with the virus, more than twice the number of patients than at any time in 2020 or 2021.

“We also have 21 past positive COVID-19 patients," Giroux said.

"So essentially what this means is that one patient out of six at HSN currently has COVID or had COVID and requires acute care."

He said since Jan. 1, the hospital has admitted and provided care to 129 patients for COVID-19. And currently, 190 staff are off work with the disease.

“That represents about four per cent of our teams," he said. "Other hospitals in the province have reported percentages of 8, 10, and 12 per cent.”

But they were prepared for the issues and surge plans are now in effect.

“We’ve had to redeploy about 130 staff from other areas of the hospital to continue to take care of the sickest patients,” Giroux said.

Giroux said patient clinics and diagnostic testing are most significantly affected by the redeployment. It is mostly nurses and other health professionals that have been assigned to other areas.