93 additional beds being built in a modular unit attached to the South Tower of the Joseph Brant Hospital as a temporary Pandemic Response Unit

News 100 redBy Staff

March 30th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

93 additional beds are being built in a modular unit attached to the South Tower of the Joseph Brant Hospital.

Joseph Brant Hospital is building a temporary Pandemic Response Unit to expand the hospital’s bed capacity in preparation for the anticipated surge of COVID-19 patients.

This modular structure is being built on the hospital grounds and connected to the South Tower. It will provide 93 additional beds for patients who require hospitalization and treatment for COVID-19.

Hospital modular

Modular hospital that will house at least 93 beds is on the way to Burlington from Calgary.

The modular unit left Calgary this afternoon on a transport truck – they will begin putting it together – could be ready by the end of the week.

JBMH president Eric Vandewall is reported to be working on his schedule and aking tme to meet with the city. Dinner with senior city staff was a good start.

JBH president Eric Vandewall

“The Pandemic Response Unit is being built as a critical part of our pandemic response plan to meet the heightened care needs of our community and ultimately save lives,” says Eric Vandewall, President & CEO of Joseph Brant Hospital. “We are doing everything we can to care for the people of Burlington to prepare for these unprecedented times.” The Pandemic Response Unit is a collaboration between Joseph Brant Hospital, community-based health care providers, the City of Burlington, and Halton Region.

“The construction of the Pandemic Response Unit will allow the hospital to preserve our critical care and high acuity patient beds for our sickest patients,” states Dr. Ian Preyra, Chief of Staff for Joseph Brant Hospital. “Physicians from the Burlington community are volunteering to provide patient care in the Pandemic Response Unit, treating COVID-19 positive patients with acute care needs who may require oxygen therapy and ongoing monitoring.

“I have confidence in our health care system, and particularly in our healthcare professionals. The Federal government has provided an extra $500 million to provinces to support our health care system. We are also coordinating the procurement of essential equipment to keep our front line workers safe and working with Canadian industry, including here in Halton, to produce the equipment we need. I want to recognize the efforts of our local hospital. This is a challenging time for everyone, but the measures we are putting in place are extremely important. By staying home and physically distancing ourselves from each other we are keeping our frontline workers, like nurses and doctors, safe. We all have a role play to protect ourselves and our community from Covid-19,” states Hon. Karina Gould, Member of Parliament for Burlington.

“On the advice of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, the Ministry of Health has requested all hospitals implement pandemic plans to help increase capacity as cases of COVID-19 continue to grow. In these unprecedented times, I’m proud of the work the team at Joseph Brant Hospital is doing to ensure they are prepared to serve the people of Burlington by adding capacity,” MPP Jane McKenna reflects. “Thank you to the wonderful doctors, nurses and every employee on the frontlines at Joseph Brant Hospital. You are the real heroes in this crisis.”

brant-hospital-rendering-aerial

Modular structure is being built on the hospital grounds and connected to the South Tower. It will provide 93 additional beds

“Joseph Brant Hospital’s plan for a Pandemic Response Unit is a critical step in ensuring we have the right resources in place during COVID-19,” said Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr. “This is a difficult time for everyone as we fight this “invisible threat” and I applaud the leadership at Joseph Brant Hospital and all community partners who are working together to support our healthcare workers. It is also important at this time for everyone in our community to practice physical distancing to reduce the burden on our hospital resources,” states Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr.

“I fully support the action Joseph Brant Hospital is taking in preparing for an increase in COVID-19 patients. Our community, including our hospital, needs to plan and prepare for every contingency during this emergency situation,” says Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.

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3 comments to 93 additional beds being built in a modular unit attached to the South Tower of the Joseph Brant Hospital as a temporary Pandemic Response Unit

  • Claudette Mancini

    This is very good news! Perhaps our MPP Jane McKenna could put a bug in Doug Ford’s ear to do something about the current proposal to build a megalithic nursing home on North Shore that will house about 600 people and staff. Haven’t they heard that the most vulnerable places for the proliferation of Codex-19 are the retirement and nursing homes? So why do these projects get approval when they are hotbeds for every manner of infection known to the elderly? Ask the families of those elderly folks how many times the homes are closed to visitors due to one or another infectious agent that is being passed around the population therein. Bigger is not better, as we are now seeing.

  • SusieQ

    Great decision! Burlington is on top of things – thank you to all!

  • Gil

    Cool! What a great way to put in place additional beds which will hopefully only be needed for the short-term. A nice way to think outside the box.
    93 just seems like a random number. Not 90, 95 or 100.