Brampton Peel Memorial urgent care centre closed until February

Brampton’s Peel Memorial Centre urgent care centre has been extended to the beginning of February.

The urgent care centre was temporarily closed by the William Osler Health System on Sunday due to increasing patient volumes in emergency departments.

The centre had tentative plans to reopen on Tuesday, but the shut down has now been extended until at least February.

Osler said its emergency departments remain open for any urgent and emergent health care needs, but asked residents to visit a family doctor for non-emergent concerns.

Osler said the closure will help direct the staff and physicians to where demand is the greatest.

The health system is dealing with extreme capacity and staffing pressures due to a surge in COVID-19 patients and the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.

Osler president and CEO Dr. Naveed Mohammad said last week that the health system typically sees an increase in patients during the winter months, but a “significant” number of COVID-19 patients has “compounded the season surge.”

Data from the province shows the number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals has more than doubled in the last seven days.

On Monday, there were 2,467 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals, with 438 in intensive care units and 234 of those patients breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Another 1,141 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon on Monday as the number of patients in Ontario intensive care units continues to climb.

According to Peel Public Health (PPH), 536 of Monday’s new cases reported in the Region of Peel on Monday were in Mississauga, 525 were in Brampton and another 80 cases were in Caledon and other areas.

The urgent care shut down comes just days after Osler lifted a “Code Orange” at Brampton Civic Hospital, and one week Peel Paramedic Union said the EMS was running at Code Black.

All non-urgent programs and services at Brampton Civic and all other hospitals in the province have been suspended while the healthcare system grapples with staffing and capacity issues due to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 Omicron variant.