THUNDER BAY — With the changing weather comes the emergence of colds, flu and even new strains of COVID-19.
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre president and CEO Rhonda Crocker Ellacott said officials are in the middle of their fall and winter preparedness, which strives to model and predict what could happen with the respiratory seasonal illnesses, including respiratory syncytial virus, influenza and COVID-19.
“We're [looking at what we might] require in terms of bed capacity, pediatric surge, the impact on the emergency department and critical care, as well as our regional role and then the impact on staffing,” she said. “[All of this planning ensures that] we're in a much better position to mitigate the impact on seasonal flu or any other respiratory illness.”
For staffing, the hospital has brought on 150 employees through the province's Community Commitment Program for Nurses, which means the facility has 100 more on staff than they did at this point in 2022.
Crocker Ellacott noted that officials need to be prepared to change course should the need arise.
“It's one thing to have respiratory illnesses impacting patients, their families, the community and the region, it's another thing as well to have those impacting our own staff," she said. "So, we really need to have the [measures in place] to be able to mitigate between those two factors. But we are in a better position than we were last year.”
She added that the vacancy rate across the board is at one per cent, so there will always be a need for staff.
Meanwhile the obstacles facing the healthcare system in the province are anticipated to persist for years to come.
That finding from a report released from the Financial Accountability Office back in March, which points to the province being short about $21.3 billion in health spending by 2027-2028.
In the summer, Health Minister Sylvia Jones unveiled a $40-million fund to launch three programs that aim to help connect patients to the services they need, allow internationally trained physicians to work more quickly and establish a nursing mentor program.
