Dec 06, 2022
By Christine Ross
The head of Ottawa’s pediatric hospital says teams of Red Cross staff will be working rotating overnight shifts at the hospital this week, allowing redeployed staff to go back to their usual work. Two teams of nine people are expected to be with the hospital until at least the end of the year, helping move patients and get supplies.
“There hasn’t been a single day in 2022 where there’s been 150 kids or fewer,” said Alex Munter, CEO of CHEO in an interview. “We’re seeing unprecedented volumes of activity.”
Munter says R-S-V cases are reportedly stabilizing at the Ottawa hospital, but flu rates have seen a big increase.
Earlier at Queens Park, Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the additional pediatric ICU beds at CHEO will stay.
“CHEO has essentially doubled their pediatric ICU unit, it is an incredible amount of work that they’ve been able to do very quickly and we have now permanently made the investment to ensure that those pediatric beds will stay at CHEO,” said Jones during Question Period.
She has been under fire by the NDP for the overcrowding situation in hospitals and the Red Cross needing to help at Ottawa’s children hospital.
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