COVID-19 response at MGH: Proactive actions on oxygen supply

Updated April 30 at 12:30 p.m.

Statement on behalf of Mark Fam, Vice President, Programs at Michael Garron Hospital

“On April 29, Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) identified potential risks to its oxygen supply due to the high volume of COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen at the hospital. As a result, MGH proactively took steps to reduce its oxygen consumption, including: transferring 10 patients to other GTA hospitals, re-scheduling seven surgeries and diverting four ambulances to other hospitals. All patients requiring oxygen in the hospital had the oxygen they needed, and these proactive measures ensured no patients were at risk.

Today, MGH resumed regularly scheduled healthcare services and procedures. The hospital has an oxygen trailer and local tanks in place as back-up measures to core oxygen supply, with plans underway to add further supply as we consider longer-term needs.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks again to our local hospital and health system partners for their assistance and support yesterday.”

Updated April 29 at 4:40 p.m.

Statement on behalf of Mark Fam, Vice President, Programs at Michael Garron Hospital

“Early this morning, Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) identified potential risks to its oxygen supply due to the high volume of COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen at the hospital. MGH proactively reached out to hospital partners and the GTA Incident Management System (IMS) to transfer 10 patients to other acute centers in the GTA today. The hospital also brought on additional temporary oxygen capacity, so that all patients requiring oxygen in the hospital had what they needed, and no patients were at risk.

Given the demand for oxygen supply was very high, MGH took additional precautionary measures to preserve this resource as we worked on expanding oxygen capacity on-site. Some of these measures included postponing seven surgical cases and diverting some ambulances to reduce the demand for oxygen in the hospital.

We appreciate the assistance and support from our hospital partners as we worked to alleviate some of the pressure on the system and enhanced our oxygen supply at the hospital.”