Ontario: The Canadian Red Cross is going to assist Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario amid a surge of children and youth with respiratory illnesses.
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, also known as CHEO, has been struggling with shortage of staff amidst rise in respiratory patients.
Red Cross spokesperson Leianne Musselman said the organization will provide small teams to help the hospital staff and they will be given to complete clinical tasks.
Musselman, however, did not specify the date of the agreement’s start, but CHEO Chief Nursing Executive Tammy DiGiovanni said red cross personnel would be coming here next week to help clinical teams.
“This will bring our re-deployed staff back to performing their regular roles and ensure that team CHEO is engaged in providing safe and quality health care to our patients,” he said in a statement.
Pertinently, CHEO had started the second intensive care unit in November to help sick children. As of December 1, only 10 of the 130 beds in Ontario’s paediatric intensive care units were vacant, according to government data.
He said that due to seasonal flu, RS virus and COVID-19, the CHEO has to take such strict criteria.