The Strains of McMaster Children’s Hospital in the Media 

Throughout the fall, child health experts, including faculty members from the Department of Pediatrics, at McMaster University, engaged in over 100 interviews and statements with media outlets from across the country.  

This advocacy work was to help educate the community, government, and families about the clinical capacity challenges faced not only at McMaster Children’s Hospital but across Ontario as well.   

A Toronto Star article titled, “Pediatric care in Ontario is in crisis. How did we get here?” (Published December 11, 2022) described sick children in need of intensive care being transferred across southern Ontario, adult ICUs opening their doors to teens to free up space for younger children at overflowing pediatric hospitals and non-urgent surgeries for children being postponed, except in the most serious and time-sensitive cases.  

Bruce Squires, president of McMaster Children’s Hospital, described the strain on the pediatric hospital system as a “100-year flood.”  

“We were already at – or near the top – of the levee every single year and our system flooded frequently. And now with this 100-year flood, we’re just overwhelmed,” Squires said.   

To read the full Toronto Star article, “Pediatric care in Ontario is in crisis. How did we get here?” click here.  

On Tuesday, December 13, 2022, Dr. Angelo Mikrogianakis, the Chair and Chief of the Department of Pediatrics, was interviewed on CityTV’s Breakfast Television. He spoke about the crisis overwhelming children’s hospitals as another wave of respiratory illnesses hit Ontario.  

When asked about the Emergency Department at McMaster Children’s Hospital specifically, Mikrogianakis said the entire hospital has been affected. 

“This year, we’re seeing a huge surge of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that have returned after the last couple of years, where we’ve been wearing masks and isolating,” Mikrogianakis begins.  

“Now, we’re being exposed to all the regular viruses that we usually see in the winter months, but there are several years of young children that have never been exposed to these viruses before because of COVID and because of the protected things we did during COVID.”  

Mikrogianakis also shared his input regarding hospitals needing to transfer young patients to another hospital.  

“As heartbreaking as it is, we’ve had children in our region who’ve needed our children’s hospital, but we haven’t had the beds, ICU capacity, or space to care for them and unfortunately, they’ve needed to be transferred out of [the] region, going long distances away from their homes and away from their families, to wherever an ICU bed is available in the province,” Mikrogianakis said.  

He said that children’s ICU beds and ward, and hospital spaces need a “reset” and needs to catch up with the current demands of the population and sick children.  

Watch the full Breakfast Television interview featuring Mikrogianakis, please see below. 

For more on Pediatrics in the Media, click here.