The Ontario government announced on Friday (April 9) it has issued two emergency orders to help hospitals cope with the surge in COVID-19 patients.
One of the temporary orders will allow hospitals “at significant and immediate risk of becoming overwhelmed” to transfer patients to another hospital, without requiring the consent of the patient or the patient’s substitute decision maker.
“During major surge events where the demand for critical care threatens to overwhelm a hospital, the province will allow hospitals the flexibility to transfer patients to alternate hospital sites without obtaining the consent of the patient or, where the patient is incapable, their substitute decision maker,” states a media release.
“Hospitals may rely upon this order to facilitate the transfer of a patient to an alternate hospital site only when necessary to respond to a major surge event, when the attending physician is satisfied that the patient will receive the care they require at that other site and that the transfer can be effected without compromising the patient’s medical condition, and where all of the other conditions specified within the order have been met.”
The government says, when a major surge event is over, “reasonable efforts” would be made to transfer the patient back to the original hospital, or to another suitable location with the consent of the patient or substitute decision maker.
The other order will allow health care professionals and other workers in Home and Community Care Support Services organizations (formerly known as Local Health Integration Networks) and Ontario Health — such as care coordinators and nurses — to be redeployed to hospitals, with the organizations authorized to backfill the redeployed staff.
Both orders, which came into effect on Friday, remain in effect for two weeks unless revoked or extended under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.
In addition to the two orders, the province has also instructed all hospitals — except those in northern Ontario — to ramp down all elective surgeries and non-urgent activities effecting Monday (April 12).
All three measures are expected to increase ICU capacity in the province by up to 1,000 patient beds, according to the government. There are currently 552 patients in Ontario ICUs because of a COVID-related critical illness, with 359 of these patients on ventilators.
The emergency order allowing patient transfers is in addition to an earlier provincial directive, which has already resulted in 33 patients from other regions being transferred to Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
