NEWS RELEASE
COLLINGWOOD GENERAL AND MARINE HOSPITAL
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Commencing Monday, April 12, 2021, Collingwood General and Marine Hospital will ramp down all elective surgeries and non-emergent/urgent activities, as directed by Ontario Health, in order to preserve critical care and health human resource capacity.
This instruction to all Ontario hospitals comes at a time when the province has reached a critical capacity breaking point, due to the high volume of very ill COVID patients.
Emergent and urgent surgeries, such as cancer care will continue, and the hospital’s emergency department remains open to see any patient requiring urgent care.
Patients that have upcoming surgeries and appointments at CGMH will be contacted by their surgeons’ offices or the hospital, if their surgery, diagnostic imaging or outpatient clinic is cancelled at this time. Patients that have not received a phone call, should proceed to the hospital as scheduled.
“We understand the cancellation of any surgery or appointment is not easy for patients and we understand the concern our community may be feeling,” says Norah Holder, CGMH President and CEO. “Yet it’s anticipated that approximately 900 Ontarians with a COVID diagnosis may require an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed by the end of April. At CGMH, we currently have five ICU beds, with two additional rooms now equipped with air scrubbers and the ability to quickly be converted into ICU rooms, if required by our community, or by patients that may be transferred to our hospital from another hospital.”
We ask the community to continue to follow all guidelines from Public Health and adhere to the provincial stay-at-home order.
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