January 7, 2021

It is important for parents to know that they can and should come to St. Joseph’s Health Centre to receive care for their children. Our youngest patients remain a top priority, and we continue to provide consultative, neonatal and ambulatory care for all our pediatric patients, including at our Just For Kids Clinic, Paediatric Consultation Clinic and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

What’s shifting as of today, Jan. 7, is that pediatric patients who need to be hospitalized (meaning, admitted for a hospital stay), may be transferred to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), where there is capacity. Delivering safe, high quality care is our top priority and a transfer would occur when the physician determines the care needs should be met by SickKids.

That is because our St. Joseph’s site, along with William Osler Health System and Humber River Hospital, is working with SickKids to help create adult inpatient capacity at our sites.  We anticipate this to continue until COVID volumes return to more reasonable levels in the GTA.

We want to stress that this is a positive example of the system working collaboratively to make sure that people get the care that they need during this complex time. This type of collaboration, led by the GTA Hospital Incident Management System and in cooperation with all Toronto hospital partners, is vital as we move forward and we are proud to be a part of this system-based approach.