With COVID-19 infections among its staff more than tripling in a week, London's largest hospital network is working on a contingency plan to keep essential services in place.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed on Tuesday that 104 of its 15,000 workers have tested positive for the virus. That is a significant rise from 28 staff cases reported just one week ago.
"These positive staff cases are reflective of the wide-spread transmission of the COVID-19 virus in our community," said LHSC spokesperson Alex Pedersen. "As staff test positive, our occupational health and safety services work in close alignment with Public Health to conduct contact tracing to determine if there was a risk of transmission within the hospital."
Currently, there are no active outbreaks within the LHSC including at Victoria Hospital or University Hospital. The number of positive COVID-19 cases among staff represents just 0.69 per cent of the hospital's workforce. As such, it has not resulted in any service reductions at this time. However, LHSC officials are working on a contingency plan should the case count among employees continue to climb.
"Senior leadership is monitoring the situation closely and is reviewing strategic plans to ensure delivery of essential services is not interrupted," Pedersen said. "As we see numbers in our community rapidly rising due to Omicron, we are concerned as to how subsequent positive cases may impact our health human resources. This is a common issue and consideration across the sector."
Possible services that could be paused temporarily, if staff cases continue to soar, include non-essential surgeries and in-person follow-up appointments.
On-site antigen COVID-19 testing is available for hospital staff, and symptomatic workers are required to stay home.
Last week the Ontario government announced hospital staff who have been identified as close contacts of an infected individual need not stay home from work as long as they are asymptomatic and have tested negative.
