Ontario hospitals face staffing challenges as COVID-19 cases continue to mount

Ontario hospitals are feeling the brunt of soaring COVID-19 case counts as the virus rips through the province at record speed and infects high numbers of patients and health care workers.

The situation has become so serious that some hospital networks are reporting hundreds of their staff members have tested positive for the virus, are symptomatic or are in isolation after an exposure.

Kevin Smith, the president and chief executive officer of Toronto's University Health Network, says those factors combined have resulted in at least a hundred staff absences per day as the highly transmissible Omicron variant drives case counts to unprecedented highs across the province.

"There aren't health care workers growing on trees, so it's a very, very limited supply and they're in hot demand everywhere," Smith said in a telephone interview.

The number of staff unable to work at UHN's five facilities in recent weeks, including Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret Hospitals, is higher than what the facilities experienced in previous waves of the virus.