Toronto ICU Doctor Says Beds Are Filling Faster Than They Can Clean Them

"We are in trouble," says Dr. Alex Patel.
Contributor

An Ontario doctor is sounding the alarm on the situation inside Toronto ICUs right now, claiming that the province is "in trouble."

Dr. Alex Patel, an ICU doctor practicing at William Osler Health System, shared his experience in Toronto ICUs during the third wave with Narcity as well as social media.

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On Twitter, Patel claimed that beds in Toronto ICUs are filling up "faster than [they] could clean them," as the third wave has brought a significant increase in ICU admissions compared to the first two, especially in younger people, he says.

"We are seeing patients that are younger than we have in either of the waves, and whereas in wave one and two, we would admit maybe two to three patients a day to the ICU, we are now admitting sometimes close to six to 10 patients a day," said Patel. 

This sentiment was mirrored by Toronto's medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, who said she's been "hearing from colleagues at Toronto hospitals that, increasingly, admissions are of younger people and often directly to the ICU" during a March 29 press briefing.

  • Abby Neufeld was a writer at Narcity Canada. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Professional Communications at the University of Victoria. Her past work has been published in The Toronto Star, Bitch Media, Canadian Dimension, This Magazine, and more. In 2019, Abby co-founded The New Twenties, an environmentally-focused literary and arts magazine.

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