Things are still heating up in Chaudière-Appalaches. The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is steadily increasing, as is the number of caregivers with the disease. Result: the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches demanded the return to work of 14 asymptomatic infected workers. As elsewhere in Quebec, the operating theaters of hospitals in the region are idling.
“At Christmas, there is always a slowdown in surgical activities,” said CISSS Chaudière-Appalaches spokesperson Mireille Gaudreau. The holiday slowdown has been extended until January 17th. “The situation is assessed on a day-to-day basis,” she explains.
As of Tuesday, 79 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized in regular care, 12 in intensive care, one in the mother-child unit and six in the psychiatric care units, according to the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches. This is an increase of 11 from the previous day.
“At Saint-Georges Hospital, there are really a lot of COVID hospitalizations compared to the pro rata of the territory”, indicates Mireille Gaudreau. The hospital center, located in Beauce, has 33 patients suffering from COVID-19. The Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis has 39 of them.
The fifth wave also hits caregivers hard. In the four Chaudière-Appalaches hospitals, 778 employees have been taken off work, of which 584 have a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Among them, 14 positive but asymptomatic employees had to take action. The CISSS ensures that before reaching this decision, the other options (return of workers on vacation, movement of staff from one unit to another and compulsory overtime) were considered “but unfortunately without success”.
“These asymptomatic COVID positive employees are brought back to work under certain conditions, in particular with the wearing of N-95 masks for themselves and for the people of their entire team, in order to protect other workers but also users”, underlines Mireille Gaudreau.
Critical situation at the CHUS in Estrie
The situation is also critical in Estrie. The Center hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) is facing numerous outbreaks – Radio-Canada reported about thirty on Monday, information that the CIUSSS de l’Estrie said it was not able to confirm on Tuesday.
One thing is certain, the absence of workers and the increase in hospitalizations put the CHUS under pressure. It is also “possible” that the Fleurimont Hospital – one of the two CHUS sites – will very soon go to alert level 4 in terms of load shedding, according to Dr.r Jean-François Joncas, orthopedist at the CHUS and president of the Association d’orthopédie du Québec.
” On the other side [site de l’Hôtel-Dieu], it maybe could take 24-48 hours [de plus] before it does, he continues. We are on the alert. I think we will live the rest of the week with this possibility. “
If this measure is put in place, patients awaiting knee or hip surgery will be the first affected, laments Dr.r Joncas. ” At this moment [niveau d’alerte 4], we are reducing the number of non-urgent cases to almost zero, ”he explains.
Orthopedic personnel are then reassigned to units where there is a lack of employees. “It’s a return to square one, an impression of déjà vu, deplores the Dr Joncas. There are people who question the effectiveness of the vaccine, but meanwhile, those who are waiting to have surgeries to improve their quality of life, they are directly affected by a group of people who maybe think a little bit too much to them than to others. “