The Thunder Bay Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph's hospital in Thunder Bay, and the Lake of the Woods District Hospital in Kenora have now all declared a bed crisis, making patents in those hospitals first in line for any long-term care home beds that become available. These three facilities are the latest in a series of overloaded hospitals in the province that have reached the "1A" bed crisis designation. The crisis designation aims to help those hospitals reduce their bed occupancy. Last week the Miner News reported that the Lake of the Woods District Hospital has 26 Alternate Level of Care beds occupied, with half awaiting long-term care beds. St. Joseph's has 38 beds full with almost 40% (15) awaiting long-term care. The Ontario Health Quality Council is critical of the North West LHIN's use of LTC beds. The Council continues to disparage the use of long term care beds to help deal with the hospital overload problem, arguing that Ontari
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan