Two-thirds of patients in the Jewish General Hospital’s palliative care unit and around 15 staff there have been infected with COVID-19 in the past few days, has learned Press.
Posted on January 26, 2021 at 10:54 a.m.
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“Due to an outbreak in the palliative care unit, the unit was moved,” confirms the spokesperson for the CIUSSS du Center-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Barry Morgan. In the meantime, we are working closely with our infection prevention and control team. We completely disinfect the area. ”
Since last weekend, nine of the fifteen patients on the unit as well as 14 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. All patients and staff have been tested, and family members who have visited positive patients are advised to get tested.
“Anyone wishing to visit a palliative care patient should make the request to the care team,” says Morgan.
Edith is one of those relatives who recently visited a family member hospitalized in palliative care at the Jewish General Hospital. She refused to let us publish her name or that of her relative, citing professional and personal reasons.
The outbreak in the palliative care unit significantly complicates the lives of families and dying people, she says.
Her close relative, suffering from cancer, has been hospitalized since the end of December at the Jewish General Hospital and was transferred in January to palliative care. “They changed her room. And then, they isolated her preventively because she had been in contact with an employee who tested positive. Last week, she took her test: it was positive. And now almost the entire unit is contaminated. ”
Edith’s parent’s cancer is very aggressive, she says. It won’t be very long. “The major impact of all this is that we can no longer see her”, relates the woman. In normal times, in palliative care, visits are still permitted. Each patient is allowed four visitors in total, but no more than two per day. Edith and her family took turns so that someone was always at her bedside. “Her fear of dying alone is immense,” she said.
“But there, despite the protective equipment that we wear at all times when we go to see her, we are considered at risk and we are asked to place ourselves in isolation. Impossible, therefore, to go to his bedside. She talks to the patient on the phone every day. “We hear him over the phone that his strength is diminishing. I can talk to him for a minute or two. She is wasting away visibly. And we are taken at home! ”
This outbreak in a palliative care unit is a tragic example of nosocomial contamination of COVID-19. The National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) estimates that 15% of cases of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were probably infected with the coronavirus during their stay in hospital. In INESSS projections, they are considered “presumed” cases of nosocomial COVID-19.
Healthcare workers are often a vector of the disease: in total, no less than 35,000 healthcare workers have been infected in Quebec, out of 240,000 cases in total. This therefore represents almost one in six cases. As of January 15, there were around 40 outbreaks in healthcare settings on the island of Montreal. To speak of an outbreak, we must identify a minimum of two cases in the environment.
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