Red Cross sends personnel to Ottawa to help prominent children’s hospital

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa says it will soon be receiving help from the Canadian Red Cross.

The hospital says their emergency department is at around 130 per cent capacity and they’re seeing around 200 kids a day.

CHEO has been so overwhelmed that they opened a second intensive care unit in November to treat what they’re calling “an unprecedented surge in the number of critically ill babies and children due to cases of flu, RSV and COVID-19.

Every pediatric emergency department in Ontario is currently over capacity according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

McMaster Children’s Hospital has been sounding the alarm bell for at least a month now, saying their emergency departments are well over capacity and children are seeing over 24 hour wait times.

READ MORE: HHS addresses overwhelming capacity surge at McMaster Children’s Hospital

They’ve also started asking adult ICU’s to take teenage patients.

The Red Cross says it will supply CHEO with small teams of personnel to support staff and allow them to focus on clinical tasks and return to their regular roles, rather than filling in elsewhere.

That’s expected to start this week but there’s no firm date set.

This unprecedented widespread illness in children is something hospitals are seeing across the country.

In Calgary, Alberta health services says it’s pausing admissions and discharging all children from the Rotary Flames House that provides end of life care for children. That’s so all 20 staff members can be re-deployed to overwhelmed pediatric hospitals in the city.

The move is again caused by a surge in flu, RSV, and COVID-19 cases.

Mac Kids as well as a number of other pediatric hospitals, are asking parents to get their kids vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu as we head into the winter season.

READ MORE: Record number of children being seen at McMaster Children’s Hospital Emergency Department