The number of emergency visits to the children’s hospital of East Ontario has reached an all time high sin the first day of this year. This has caused a longer waiting line for children in need of treatment.

There was addition of extra staff and physicians in the hospital in order to deal with rush of patients, but according to the officials, there has been no report of bed shortage or cancellations in elective surgeries due to the increase in the number of patients.

There has been a record of 11, 500 childr4en in the ER of the children’s hospital since the beginning of this year. This has shown an increase of about 15%. According to the officials, one of the culprits of this is winter flu.

"We are seeing many more kids coming in, particularly with flu and viral illnesses", said Dr. Mona Jabbour, Medical Director of CHEO's ER. He also said they were not sure why there is such a sudden high in the number of cases.

On the surface though, it appears that fewer children had taken vaccinations against flu this year. The hospital has made an urge to the parents to take care of their children and try to treat minor injury or illness at home.

They have also advised them to try and see their family doctor before they showed up at the CHEO.