Visitors restricted at 2 Montreal hospitals to curb swine flu

Two Montreal hospitals haveestablished visiting restrictionsin hopes of limiting the spread of swine flu.

Last week, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital began asking young people to stay away from the hospital, andSainte-Justine Childrens Hospital has banned all visitors except parents.

Dr. Sarah Bouchard, interim director of professional services at Sainte-Justine, said the hospital's priority is protecting patients. "To do that, we really have to try to limit the disease inside the hospital," said Bouchard.

Montreal's public health department said it won't impose restrictions on hospitals, but the director of public health said he supports the restrictions put in place at the two French-language hospitals.

The Montreal Children's Hospital said it would not restrict visitors for the time being, but will continue to ask visitors to use hand sanitizer andwill keep them informed about H1N1.

"We're obviously encouraging people not to come unless they absolutely have to. And we've always had a policy in place, before H1N1, that if you're sick, if you have a fever, if you have a cough or sneezing, that you should stay away," said Lisa Dutton, spokeswoman for the Montreal Children's Hospital.

Both Sainte-Justine and the Montreal Children's hospitals confirmed they've seen a recent increase in the number of cases of swine flu.

"Our emergency room is very crowded these days, and it's a lot of children coming in with flu-like symptoms," said Dutton.

She confirmed that hospital staff at the Montreal Childrens Hospitalhave also gotten sick, but said most cases are mild and staff members are recovering quickly.

Quebec's Ministry of Health and Social Services says it's monitoring the situation among health-care workers andhas in place a pandemic plan that includes dealing with many hospital workers getting sick.

"They have to prepare replacements because this is a possibility," said ministry spokeswoman Dominique Breton.

Breton said hospitals could call doctors and nurses out of retirement if the situation gets bad enough. But for now, she said the ministry is focused more on the fall and winter, when the number of flu cases tends to be the highest.