Chatham-Kent Health Alliance officials are reporting a drop in patients visiting the emergency departments with respiratory illnesses between December and January, but admissions from the emergency rooms to the hospitals remain high.
Caen Suni, the hospital group’s vice president of clinical programs and operations, said patients with illnesses like influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus dropped 50 per cent in January compared to December among children and by one-third among adults.
“The community is I think essentially working its way through seasonal illness at this point,” he said during a media teleconference Monday.
December also showed a 25 per cent increase over December 2021 for pediatric admissions and of those, 77 per cent were for respiratory illnesses, Suni said.
“That’s impactful and I think that’s what we’ve seen across the health sector in our entire region at this point,” he said.
Suni said the number of people seeking treatment at the emergency departments – which includes patients not admitted – is not “historically high,” but admissions to the hospitals increased in December by three per cent over the previous month.
This translates to an extra two to three extra patients a day who require a bed. The health alliance also experienced almost 2.5 per cent more admissions in December than any month in the previous year.
However, December also had the lowest daily average of visits to the emergency departments of any month during the Health Alliance’s current fiscal year.
This means a higher proportion of patients require admission to the hospital and patients presenting at the emergency departments are more ill, Suni said.
Since December, the trends are now “pointing towards a decrease,” Suni said, “which we’re thankful for, as the community bounces back from seasonal illness.”