With ERs swamped, LHSC's COVID, cold and flu clinic opens to children

London’s COVID, cold and flu assessment centre will begin seeing sick children Wednesday, a strategy that hospital officials hope will reduce the strain on burdened emergency rooms.

London’s expanded COVID-19, cold and flu assessment clinic has seen more than 310 patients in its first two weeks. It’s in the former Canadian Blood Services building at London Health Sciences Centre’s Victoria Hospital. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)

London’s COVID, cold and flu assessment centre will begin seeing sick children Wednesday, a strategy that hospital officials hope will reduce the strain on burdened emergency rooms.

The COVID, Cold and Flu Care Clinic, located in a building at London Health Sciences Centre’s Victoria Hospital property, is making appointments available for children on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m.

The clinic will see and assess children with such COVID, cold and flu symptoms as fever, chills, cough, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, runny nose and sore throat.

“This is another opportunity for our families and community to access care,” Victoria Hospital president Deborah Wiseman said Tuesday.

People may consider making an appointment at the clinic if their child does not have a family doctor, if they are at high risk of severe complications from respiratory illnesses, if their symptoms are worsening or if they have been told by a medical professional to visit the centre, LHSC said in a statement.

The assessment centre, which relocated in September from the Carling Heights community centre to Building 24 at the corner of Commissioners and Western Counties roads, transitioned to a COVID, cold and flu care clinic from COVID only in early December. At the time, it was seeing only adult patients by appointment.

The clinic offers patients COVID-19 assessment and lab-based testing, cold and flu assessment, and medical guidance that could include advice for next steps or treatment, including care at home, follow-up with a primary care provider or a visit to the emergency room.

The centre can also prescribe the COVID-19 antiviral medication Paxlovid to eligible adults.

The assessment centre can now see approximately 100 adults a day and is booking about 45 per cent of its total, Wiseman said. The centre has the capacity to see about 50 children with its Monday and Wednesday evening openings but will adjust to add more spaces if necessary, Wiseman said.

COVID-19 assessment centres opened at the start of the pandemic to test and treat people with symptoms of the disease. The London centre, like ones in other communities across the province, has since expanded to assess people with symptoms of other respiratory viruses.

COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County have been steadily rising after declines in October and November. Other respiratory illnesses, particularly flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), have roared in earlier and more intensely than in other years, putting pressure on adult and children’s emergency rooms across the province.

Facing a flood of sick kids streaming into its emergency room this fall, London’s Children’s Hospital was forced to postpone some non-urgent surgeries in November to preserve inpatient capacity. Weeks ago, LHSC reported its inpatient volume at Children’s Hospital was as high as 120 per cent.

Children’s Hospital, also located at LHSC’s Victoria campus, added a pediatric intensive care annex late last month with space for eight additional patients.

Wiseman expects the pressure on LHSC’s emergency rooms will continue through the remainder of the respiratory virus season.

“Our wait times in the emergency department on the adult side of the operation continue to be challenging,” she said Tuesday.

“On the pediatric side, we’re seeing extensions of the fall surge. Influenza A has reduced somewhat slightly. We’re sitting at about 80 per cent capacity in our inpatient pediatric beds, but we are anticipating additional COVID volumes in the coming weeks and still managing RSV volumes that are high but stable.”

Pediatric appointments at the COVID, Cold and Flu Care Clinic must be made online at covidtestinglm.ca or by calling 519-685-8500, ext. 75503.

The clinic remains open seven days a week from 9:20 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for adult appointments.