URGENT CARE CLOSING UP TO EIGHT WEEKS

Hamilton Health Sciences staff say closure of its West End Urgent Care Centre, at 690 Main St. W., will last eight weeks or less, to deal with growing numbers of COVID-19 patients, including health-care staff, impacting the wider system.

According to a statement issued by the hospital corporation on Friday, Jan. 14 its facilities were caring for 213 positive COVID-19 patients, with 24 in the ICU, and currently 634 staff and physicians in self-isolation.

The statement says the closure is temporary and anticipated for up to eight weeks with an aim to reopen as soon as possible.

The urgent care centre opened in 2011 to address area impacts of HHS closing the McMaster University Medical Centre conversion to a children's hospital and closure of its emergency room to the general public.

It was temporarily closed for three months in 2021 to address COVID-19 impacts, and reopened in July with reduced hours.

HHS spokesperson Wendy Stewart said Monday, Jan. 17 the urgent care centre will close temporarily for up to eight weeks.

"This measure will support the deployment of five emergency-trained physicians, 10 nurses and several other staff to emergency departments and other high-priority areas across our hospital," Stewart said.

In Friday's statement, chief of emergency medicine Dr. Kuldeep Sidhu said urgent care staff have unique skills that are needed at hospital sites.

"We are doing everything possible to address staffing shortages and maintain essential services in our community and our region," Sidhu said. "While we are seeing less patients requiring critical care as in previous waves, there are more patients requiring admission to our acute wards. At the same time, staffing shortages are at record highs."

In related news on Jan. 17, St. Joseph's announced it is temporarily reducing the hours of its urgent care centre at the King Street East campus from to 4 - 10 p.m. daily effective as of Jan. 18.

The hospital said the temporary move to evening-only hours will enable it to redeploy urgently needed healthcare professionals to other high demand areas of the hospital.