Hamilton emergency docs concerned as people delay hospital visits due to COVID-19

Emergency room doctors at Hamilton General Hospital say they are concerned that morepatients are delaying hospital visits out of fear they could contract COVID-19 during their stay and when they do arrive, they're sicker than they should be.

"We're hearing that a lot from patients and families, there's a reluctance to come into the hospital,"Dr. Alim Pardhan, emergency medicine site lead at Hamilton General, said during CBC Asks on Friday.

"How unwell patients are when they come to the hospital is higher ... delaying care can lead to worse outcomes. Something that is easily treatable early in the course may be less easily treatable later."

Dr. Anthony Crocco, chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Hamilton General, said despite hospitals having more room to treat patients than normal, fewer people are coming in.

"We've also heard people apologetic for coming in and using the emergency department in this time," he said during CBC Asks on Friday.

"Quite honestly, ourvolumes here at our hospital have gone from an average of maybe160 to 180 patients a day to 50 to 60. These days our volumes are quite low."

Croccoadded that in the children's hospital volume is down by more than 50 per cent, but they are seeing more cases of children with worse symptoms because they waited to get help. As for kids with COVID-19, Crocco said there have only been a handful of those cases and most of them were not severe.

Doctors say hospitals are 'safe'

Despite fears that hospitals are a hotspot for the virus because it is the place that ultimately treats infected patients, both doctors say safety plans have been discussedsince January.

"Of all the places you can visitduring this pandemic, we had been preparing the most aggressively in terms of getting our area safe because we know it's about protecting you, the patients and your families," Crocco explained, "and it's also about protecting us and our team, and if our team goes down we can't provide the service to the community that we need to and so I feel safe coming to work and bringing my family here."

Pardhansaid anyone who visits the hospital will now have to visit a screening booth to answer questions about any recent travel before washing their hands and receiving a mask.

The waiting rooms are also set up in a way that physically distances patients. Rooms with positive COVID-19patients get an extra deep clean.

How an emergency room at a Hamilton hospital keeps patients safe from COVID-19

4 years ago

Duration 1:39

An emergency room doctor takes us for a walk through the emergency department at a Hamilton hospital to give the public a sense of what precautions are taken to prevent COVID-19.

Font-line workers are also taking their own precautions.

Crocconoted that he self-quarantined in his basement, away from his family, for four weeks when the virus hit Hamilton because he didn't know whether the city would mirror the devastation seen in places like Italy and New York.

"That was probably the hardest part of this for me ... there were some tough days I think in the beginning when you didn't know what the experience here in Hamilton was going to look like," he said.

But he's not in his basement anymore. And the uncertainties around how bad Hamilton's outlook is has subsided.

"Just with how well the community has done with physical distancing the the burden of coping in our community is relatively low compared to other communities."