Manitoba's largest hospital moving staff around due to high numbers of sick kids: Shared Health

There's been a spike in the number of children with respiratory illness being taken to Manitoba's largest hospital, resulting in the reassignment of some staff to maintain specialized care services, health officials say.

Over the last week, the daily flow of patients to the children's emergency room at Health Sciences Centre was 19 per cent higher than the daily average last month, a news release from Shared Health said Thursday. The majority had flu or flu-like symptoms.

However, 12 children were admitted to the hospital on Wednesday, which is within the normal range and an improvement from earlier in the week, Shared Health officials said.

"We expect to see these volumes increase over time," Shawn Young, chief operating officer of HSC, said at a news conference Thursday.

"While our child health teams continue to provide excellent care to those who need it, it is clear they need help and additional support to handle this sustained pressure on our system."

Staff from HSC's child health program and natal intensive care unit have been reassigned "on a shift-by-shift basis" to ensure adequate care can be provided to the pediatric intensive care unit, Shared Health said.

Measures taken to deal with that include the reassignment of four child health educators to work as nurses, 10 staff with previous pediatric experience being moved and regular call-outs for more staff to come in.

On Thursday, there were 15 children in the pediatric intensive care unit, with another five receiving critical care elsewhere in the hospital. The kids come from health regions throughout the province, health officials said.

At least four had confirmed cases of COVID-19, influenza A or both, Shared Health said. Several others had respiratory symptoms, but either they had not yet been confirmed to have COVID or the flu, or the symptoms were caused by another health issue.

The volume of patients in the hospital's child health program has been continuously high, health officials said.

Dr. Patricia Birk, provincial specialty lead for pediatrics and child health with Shared Health, said the reassignments have been sustainable for HSC so far.

"We will make further call-outs if necessary, and there may need to be an extension of reassignments," she said at the Thursday news conference.

"That's not something that we're committed to right now. We have enough staff to support those areas, but really, time will tell."

Epidemiologist Cynthia Carr said influenza is often associated with things like aches, pains fever and headache. She also said if children are making a high-pitched wheezing noise, it can be a sign of RSV and that if they're also not eating or drinking, parents may want to seek medical attention. 

Since a lot of people are seeking care at children's emergency, Carr said going during the day could be helpful as that's when there "tend to be more staff on and more options.

"Try to go during the day if you can, but obviously if there's any situation with difficulty breathing listlessness, you would want to go right away," she told Up to Speed host Shannah-Lee Vidal Thursday afternoon.

Carr said with people gathering soon for the holidays it's important to remember if you're experiencing any symptoms of respiratory virus to consider staying home or wearing a mask. Carr also said not to visit high risk or vulnerable people if you're feeling sick either. 

Meanwhile, No surgeries have been cancelled as a result of the increased number of sick kids at HSC, Birk said.

The hospital has opened additional beds in its pediatric intensive care unit, going from 12 to 22.

Influenza A appears to be hitting kids harder than respiratory syncytial virus, Birk said, but she did not say whether any have died from the flu due to health privacy legislation.

"The vast majority of children, while they come in very sick, they do recover from this illness," she said, adding that flu vaccines are proving their effectiveness.

Health officials expect to see more children sick from RSV, but "not a lot of COVID," she said.

Birk repeated health guidance, saying people should wash their hands, stay home when ill and avoid contact with vulnerable people.

She also acknowledged and expressed gratitude for hospital staff during the news conference.

"We also recognise that people are very tired. We try to support them," she said.

"It is not unusual for people to feel weary at this time, but I do not sense that people are unwilling to support children in our hospital."