Plans are underway to make an interim expansion at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) into a permanent one.
Caen Suni, the Vice President of Clinical Programs and Operations at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, said the provincial budget in the Spring included funding for the CKHA to expand its ICU from 10 beds to 12 beds and he said that change has been in place since August 2 this year.
"This is a pretty significant development for our community," said Suni. "And the result of over a year of working very closely with provincial organizations and our funders."
Suni said the expanded ICU will allow the CKHA to provide more support to critical care patients closer to home instead of having to send those patients out to other regional hospitals - such as Windsor, London, and Sarnia depending on where there is capacity.
The two beds the hospital was able to add to the ICU are currently located in an "interim space" at the CKHA, but Suni said plans are underway to have a fully built-out space where they can have all 12 beds "optimally laid out."
Suni added that in addition to increasing capacity, which could keep local patients closer to home instead of transferring them out-of-town, the expanded unit will also allow the hospital to look at expanding the type of care it can offer.
"So, instead of sending these patients out to higher levels of care or specialists we don't have in Chatham-Kent, can we build a model with a larger unit that might support those individuals? Things we don't currently do on-site," said Suni. "People who are experiencing extreme overdoses for example, or need dialysis on our critical care unit -- these are programs we can certainly look at."
Suni said he still wants to "manage expectations," but he said the CKHA is working closely with other hospitals that have also expanded their capacity and programs and it is something the hospital staff is considering.
He said he is hoping the fully laid out space with the two additional beds will be ready sometime early in the new year.
