London hospitals expecting surge in COVID-19 patients from other regions

London-area hospitals areexpecting more COVID-19 patients to be transferred from hard-hit areas this week.

An internal memo from the London-Middlesex Primary Care Alliance said the London region can expect 40 patients fromTrillium Health Care in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The other 60are headed to the Windsor area.

As ofMonday, the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) had 86patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 39 of those patients were in critical care.

"We continue to anticipate more patients both locally as well as from other centres in the province," said Dr. Adam Dukelow, the LHSC's chief medical officer, adding that his teams are tired but digging deep to provide the best care possible.

In addition to opening up 18 critical care beds, LHSC has scaled back on surgeries andredeployed staff to care for these patients.

Of the86 COVID-19 patients currently in hospital, 53are from the region, while the other 33 are transfers mostly from theGTA.

Dukelowsaid capacity in theIntensive Care Unit is at70 per cent, but he expects that number to climb as the hospitalreceives two to five new patientsdaily this week.

Potential for primary care cliniciansto be redeployed

Amemo obtained by CBC News from the London MiddlesexPrimary Care Alliance asks clinicians willing to be redeployed to care for COVID-19 patients to be prepared for the call.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic's [third] wave accelerates, we are now having real challenges put before the system. The need to decant patients away from Toronto and Hamilton is resulting in significant transfer plans from of large number of patients which is already underway," the memo reads.

"The influx into our local hospitals of many of these patients means that we need physicians to care for them. The accommodations made to date are quickly reaching full capacity and the need to redeploy physicians is imminent and being planned."

The email goes on to say thatat this time, there is noformal request for family doctors to make themselves available to be redeployed to hospitals, but as the situation evolves they're asking for"all hands to be on deck."

Reallocating vaccine supply

The Middlesex-London region is losing 25 per cent of its vaccine supply next week to reroute the doses tohard-hit spots in the province.

Dr. Chris Mackie, the medical officer of health with the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU),said he understands whyvaccinesare being reallocated.

"Whathappens in our neighbouring jurisdictions affects us," he said. "When things are burning like they are in Toronto, there's spillover to our community. You're seeing that in a big way with health care right now."

"If a vaccine can go somewhere where it's going to prevent cases, reducespread there and reduce the spillover effects here, that's something that helps us all."

In total, the region will be losing about 3500 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, but Mackie doesn't expect that to impact vaccination plans or put any of the region'simmunization clinics at risk.