Windsor Regional Hospital is preparing to ramp down and postpone elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures.
The move is being made as part of a directive to all Ontario hospitals from the Ministry of Health to treat a growing number of COVID-19 patients.
Officials at Windsor Regional say most of these temporary closures and postponements, which include non-urgent, elective surgeries and diagnostic scans, will be effective 12:01 a.m. on Monday, April 12th.
"This is being done to save lives and we have to be there for other Ontario residents just like they were there for us not that long ago," says hospital president and CEO David Musyj.
Patients will be contacted in advance if their scheduled appointments are affected.
Windsor Regional Hospital is currently working to deal with a backlog of nearly 3,000 elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures, postponed or delayed due to the pandemic. Chief of Staff, Dr. Wassim Saad, estimated in early March that procedures at the hospital would need to run at 120 per cent capacity for more than a year to catch up.
Musyj says he feels horrible surgeries are being postponed again but hopes the community understands.
"Hopefully people recognize again that this is done to save lives," says Musyj. "The projections that are being made have been spot on up to this point. There is no reason to question them."
He says he talked to some of his colleagues from across the province Friday morning.
"I'm talking to my colleagues in Ottawa, in Mississauga, in Toronto, they're struggling, they're in trouble," he says. "We need to help and we're going to help."
Procedures are also being postponed at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington.
Ontario Health's president and CEO sent a memo Thursday night instructing hospitals to make the move to preserve critical care and human resources, starting Monday.
Matthew Anderson says the measures are necessary given ``mounting and extreme pressure on our critical care capacity'' due to increasing COVID-19 case counts.
The memo from the body that oversees the province's health system also asks hospitals to identify staff who may be redeployed to other sites if necessary.
Anderson adds that Ontario Health will continue to monitor the situation with a view to bring back surgical capacity for deferred services as soon as possible.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi