All surgeries requiring hospital stay are now postponed at the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
The hospital posted on social media Tuesday afternoon that eight patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, which enacted the final stage of its COVID-19 Bed Plan.
All eight patients are local residents.
“The Health Centre has enacted the final stage of its COVID-19 Bed Plan which is triggered when all of our designated COVID-19 beds are full,” penned the hospital. “This increase in COVID-19 patients, combined with our existing bed pressures, means our hospital will have to increase measures to protect and preserve our hospital’s capacity to provide acute care. This could include patients being moved to unconventional spaces such as a sun room.”
The hospital says effective Tuesday, “all surgeries that require a hospital stay (versus outpatient and return home) will be postponed. The postponement of these surgeries will be assessed on a weekly basis.”
“The Health Centre will continue to monitor COVID-19 cases both in the hospital and community to determine the impact this could have on other services and procedures,” reads the Facebook post. “The goal is to resume all surgeries as soon as we have capacity to safely care for all our patients.”
The hospital says patients with existing surgeries and appointments will be contacted directly by the hospital and patients can still attend scheduled outpatient appointments and the emergency department remains open.
“In an emergency, please don’t hesitate or delay receiving care,” it finished. “Our Health Centre is prepared to safely provide care to all our patients.”