Unused space at hospitals being eyed for coronavirus patients

Article by David Lea for the Oakville Beaver

Halton Healthcare has started work on what amounts to a field hospital for COVID-19 patients in some unused areas of Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH).The organization’s Senior Vice President of Redevelopment and Facilities Bill Bailey showed off some of the work that is underway during a media tour of the hospital on Friday, April 17.He noted that when OTMH was built there was extra space included to accommodate future growth.Halton Healthcare is now looking to that space to house COVID-19 patients if the need arises.“When we built the hospital, we were fortunate enough to plan it with 160,000 square feet of shelled in space,” said Bailey.“We’re doing some early prep work to make sure the plumbing and services and access to power is available should we have to bring this online.”This field hospital would include the entire eighth floor of the hospital’s inpatient tower as well as sections of the hospital’s third and fourth floors.Bailey said if there was a sudden influx of COVID-19 patients and Halton Healthcare needed additional room for them, the internal field hospital could become operational in as little as two weeks.“We can accommodate 40 beds on this floor, another 40 below this and 216 in total if we did field hospitals like this in the building,” he said.Halton Healthcare President and CEO Denise Hardenne said this model is preferable to a temporary tent hospital outside.“Fundamentally our philosophy has been that we need to hope for the best, but prepare for the worse.”- Daniel Edgcumbe, Vice President of Medical Affairs. For the full article, click HERE.