Ontario hospital looks to donors for help as province asks for pediatric capacity increase

An Ontario hospital says it is looking to donors for help as the government asks them to boost their pediatric capacity to 150 per cent but stops short of offering provincial funding for the expansion.

“I think most people don't realize that it’s through donors that most equipment is acquired, not just at Humber but at all hospitals,” Sandra Sualim, president and chief executive officer of Toronto’s Humber River Hospital Foundation, said.

In an email sent to donors last week, Humber asked their community for help in order to boost their capacity. “Each of these new [pediatric] rooms will require a monitor, vital sign machine and more equipment funded by our donors.”

In order to address the urgent pressure on the hospital’s pediatric unit, Sualim said they need to raise $150,000 in less than 30 days.

“It’s urgent because we’re in the throes of it, this is happening as we speak,” she said.

Ontario’s Ministry of Health is asking hospitals to “expand pediatric capacity to 150 per cent occupancy” and instructing emergency departments to “plan for an extreme surge, including equipment and supplies.”

These mitigation efforts were detailed in a memo obtained by CTV News Toronto sent to provincial hospitals earlier this month in an effort to manage the current influx of pediatric patients with respiratory viruses.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said that the province increased pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) capacity by 30 per cent earlier this month. The province’s most recent data shows 18 pediatric beds were added to the provincial count last week – marking the first increase in a month.

Days before this addition, hospitals were operating above capacity on and off for weeks with at most a handful of spare pediatric beds across the province on lighter days. 

At Humber, Sualim said there is space to transition adult hospital rooms into pediatric ones, but they need equipment designed for kids in order to do so.

The Ministry of Health told CTV News Toronto that they continue to work closely with hospitals to “alleviate pressures faced during influenza and respiratory virus season by providing funding.”

“This includes working with hospitals to identify sites where additional pediatric ICU beds can be funded and operationalized immediately,” the ministry’s media relations coordinator said.

However, Joe Gorman, Humber’s director of communications, said at the present time, the government has not offered additional funding for the expansion of their pediatric capacity.

Humber’s regular pediatric bandwidth is 12 beds, according to Sualim. “The government has asked us to get ready for 150 per cent capacity which means we are getting ready to expand anywhere from 15 to 18 beds.”

“Hospitals are still very much overextended,” she said. “Unfortunately it’s affecting our younger population.”