Brampton urgent care centre closed as area hospitals face ‘extreme’ pressures

Brampton’s urgent care centre has been shuttered again and will be closed until at least February as its operator, William Osler Health System (WOHS), continues to deal with a surge in hospitalizations and a staffing crunch.

The urgent care centre at Peel Memorial Hospital had just reopened in December and is eventually set to become Brampton’s second emergency room. WOHS confirmed in a statement it will be closed until Feb. 1, something it called a “difficult decision” to make.

The hospital system said the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic means it needs to put its staff and physicians where they’re most in demand. WOHS also operates Brampton Civic and Etobicoke General hospitals.

Those hospitals are seeing “increasing volumes” of patients in their emergency departments and many of those need to be admitted at a time when there are “extreme capacity and staffing pressures,” WOHS said.

Anyone who is sick with “non-emergency concerns” should try to visit their family doctor, it added.

The hospital network said there is a plan in place to help move anyone who arrives at the urgent care centre to somewhere they can get help.

CBC