The Health Ministry is providing an extra 2000 spaces in hospitals and homecare to accomodate the overflow from the flu season.
In the Windsor area that means a $1.5-million dollar investment to create 20 temporary beds at Windsor Regional Hospital for 5 months.
CEO David Musyj says the Erie St. Clair LHIN has additional resources to supplement that if there's a need.
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj (photo by AM800's Peter Langille)
Musyj says last year they had as many as 60 patients without beds during the height of the flu season.
He says depending on the need, they could open more beds in case of an overload.
"What's in the investment for Windsor Essex and the region is additional investments that the LHIN has the ability to open up 24 more beds depending on stresses in the system at any given time" explains Musyj.
He admits it's a challenge to create the space for 5 months.
"We've been working on this for a couple of weeks," says Musyj. "We have an idea of how we're going to staff it and where we're going to get the resources to staff it, so that's what work we have to get done in a very short period of time and then proceed with getting the staff ready, oriented and ready to go for a temporary period of time"
The 5 months begins at the start of November and goes to the end of March.
On top of the 20 beds at Windsor Regional and 24 more than can be opened within the Erie St. Clair LHIN area, there are 113 home care spaces being made available.
Those are cases where a patient is ready to go home with support care once they no longer need a hospital bed.
That aspect would be administered through the Community Care Access Centre and related organizations.