- Dr. Ted Macher, right, discusses an ER patient’s condition with Dr. Muhammad Sultan, a resident physician at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. The ER has been very busy due to the typical holiday surge, followed by the extremely cold weather last week.
Wear a hat when it’s cold outside.
That’s the message from Dan Belford, the director of the emergency department of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
He said the recent cold snap, which came tight on the heels of the holidays, sent a flood of local residents to the emergency room.
Belford said the Christmas holiday season is historically a busy time for the ER. Then came the blast of extreme cold from the Polar Vortex that cloaked much of the continent in a deep chill.
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The cold air plays havoc with the immune system, especially for people who don’t dress for the weather.
“People expose themselves to getting a cold,” he said, adding that 40% of a person’s body heat is lost through the head when that person doesn’t wear a toque. “We’ve seen a lot of people with coughs, shortness of breath. You’d be hard-pressed to find a toque in the (ER) waiting room.”
Belford said the extreme chill that hit Chatham-Kent is something most people just aren’t equipped clothing wise to handle.
“We’re just not prepared down here. We’re supposed to be the Florida of Canada,” he said.
The cold weather is also unkind to lungs.
“A lot of patients were presenting with respiratory issues,” he said. “Cold weather exacerbates asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other respiratory ailments,” he said.
Exercising in the deep chill of winter, including shoveling snow, isn’t a healthy decision.
“Snow shoveling: You exert yourself in extreme cold. That’s not a good combination,” he said.
Something ER staff has fortunately not seen so far is a person suffering a heart attack due to shoveling, Belford said.
But there has been no shortage of people showing up with other concerns. Two strong reasons to come to the ER, Belford said, are chest pain and shortness of breath.
He added said the majority of the respiratory issues the ER staff has encountered recently may seem like the flu to the folks suffering, but it is often just due to the cold weather.
“These respiratory issues are largely cold-related. They present like the flu, but aren’t,” he said.
Belford said the health alliance has been fortunate in seeing few influenza cases come through the ER to date.
“Within this LHIN (Local Health Integration Network), the flu hasn’t been bad. It’s nothing like Alberta,” he said.
In that western province, the number of flu cases topped 1,300 last week, and nearly 300 of them have had to be hospitalized.
Belford said the Chatham ER is typically seeing 115-120 patients a day, with one day peaking at 150 over the Christmas holidays.
Even during the busy times, he said the wait times have been decent, as the alliance has added additional nursing staff.
Two doctors typically work in the ER at a time, and nurse practitioners handle the “see and treat” of patients who have milder issues. The “see and treat” is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Belford said a triage nurse decides where a patient will be treated.
In the meantime, Belford urges people to follow mother-recommended steps to minimize exposure to the flu or a cold – wash your hands. And put on a hat, scarf and gloves!
He also provided a list of winter safety tips.
