KAWARTHA LAKES-Officials at Ross Memorial Hospital say 126 people walked into the emergency department on Monday. That’s an almost 25% increase from a regular busy day in the Emergency Department.
That increase means residents are experiencing “longer than usual wait times in our Emergency Department” said hospital officials on Tuesday.
“We are working very hard to get everyone seen as quickly as possible.” said officials.
The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge (HKPR)District Health Unit says there’s been an increase in respiratory illnesses recently.
“Most public health measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 are now lifted. This has led to a resurgence in Ontario of many respiratory viruses that were previously commonplace but kept at bay with masking and distancing.” Dr Natalie Bocking, Medical Officer of Health, HKPR.
The health unit says it tracks emergency department (ED) visits to local hospitals due to respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. The surveillance data includes ED visits to Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay, as well as other area hospitals in Cobourg, Campbellford and Minden/Haliburton.
According to the health unit the most recent ACES Report shows the number of respiratory-related ED visits at area hospitals decreasing from January to March 2022, then increasing since March with a slight decline in April/May. More recently, in June 2022, the report finds:
- An increase in the overall percentage of emergency department (ED) visits that were respiratory-related. On June 19, 14.6% of all ED visits to local hospitals were respiratory-related compared to the previous week (10% of all ED visits being respiratory-related on June 12).
- One week following this increase, on June 26, the percentage of local hospital ED visits that were respiratory-related had dropped to 8.6%.