UPDATE: Ontario hospitals asked to treat children 14 and up who need ICU

The head of Ontario’s critical care COVID-19 command centre has asked the province’s hospitals that treat adults to accept children 14 and older in need of intensive care to relieve pressure on pediatric hospitals.

Dr. Andrew Baker says in a memo to hospital CEOs that surgeries may also need to be cancelled as a result.

Baker is also asking hospitals to maximize intensive care capacity to help relieve the burdens on emergency departments.

He says the moves are being made to deal with current and future surges at pediatric hospitals.

The request comes as hospital beds for sick children are in short supply as an early virus season is hitting hard and leading to an unprecedented surge in patients.

In addition to COVID-19 and flu season, a significant increase in a common illness known as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) means longer wait times to see a doctor, and the problem is only expected to get worse as winter arrives with health experts fearing a “tripledemic.”

SickKids Hospital in Toronto has warned of longer wait times and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) reported its busiest September on record this year.

There are 107 children in critical care across the province, only four with COVID-19.

Mona Jabbour, the interim chief of pediatrics at CHEO, said the hospital has been “well over capacity for many days now.”

On Wednesday. Nov. 2, Jabbour said CHEO was at 160 per cent capacity. 

“Just to put it in perspective, yesterday, at 160 per cent capacity, all of our children were under the age of five and the vast majority of them are under the age of two,” she said. 

Jabbour called the situation “a perfect storm.”

“We are having RSV, influenza and COVID all happening at the same time,” she added. 

Some numbers from CHEO helped paint the picture at the hospital:

• On Nov. 2 there were 246 visits (the emergency department was built for 150 visits a day)
• On Nov. 3 at 1 p.m., there were 14 young people sleeping on the floor waiting for beds in the emergency department
• On Nov, 3 at 1 p.m. the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit was at 186 per cent occupancy
• At 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 2, CHEO's impatient medicine service was at 154 per cent occupancy 
• At 11:59 p.m. Nov. 2, the hospital as a whole was at 113 per cent capacity

The Minister of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.