'They are telling me how overwhelmed our ICU is': Victoria hospitals see influx of COVID-19 patients
Crystal Mundy says she is speaking on behalf of 20 doctors and nurses at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria who are afraid to come forward.
“They are telling me about how overwhelmed our ICU is,” says Mundy.
She has been following B.C.’s covid-19 numbers closely and speaking about them on social media. She says over the last two weeks, more health-care workers in Victoria have been writing to her, venting their frustrations.
“They have stated that there has just been a very big increase in terms of pressure and resources, in cases of COVID coming in,” says Mundy.
She is hearing from staff that the ICU is at capacity, that beds in other areas of the hospital are being repurposed to treat COVID-19 patients and surgeries are being bumped.
“With the significant increase in COVID cases across Island Health over the past few weeks we are seeing increasing impacts on our hospitals, including our critical care units,” Island Health said in a statement to CTV News.
“Last week, in response to increasing hospitalizations, we establish an inpatient unit for COVID patients at Victoria General Hospital to help support the increased demand for patients requiring hospitalization, but who do not require critical care,” the health authority added.
Mundy claims she is also hearing the current staffing shortage has staff at a breaking point.
“There are workers that have been sick, there’s workers that have left, there’s workers that maybe aren’t vaccinated that aren’t coming in,” says Mundy. “Whether or not they can physically take another patient, the mental well-being of these workers can’t take any more.”
Island Health admits the increased number of COVID-19 patients is challenging health-care teams.
Mundy says she fears the problem could become dire.
“If we have something like a big car crash or a ferry accident or something like that, we would have no resources to deal with that right now,” says Mundy. “We would have none.”
Island Health says it can implement surge critical care beds should they be required.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.