Alberta asks provinces for health resources as ICUS near breaking point
Provinces across Canada are examining whether they will provide health resources to Alberta as its ICUS buckle under the stress of the COVID -19 fourth wave.
Alberta Health Services CEO Dr. Verna Yiu announced Wednesday the health authority was taking the extraordinary measure of requesting ICU space and skilled staff from other jurisdictions. That revelation came as Alberta entered a state of public health emergency and introduced sweeping public health measures as COVID -19 spread threatens to overwhelm the capacity of the province's critical-care spaces.
Manitoba's premier said Thursday his province will work to offer support if asked, providing it continues to have capacity. Yiu also said AHS is discussing potential patient transfers to Ontario, which has offered ICU capacity help.
Quebec officials told Postmedia on Thursday afternoon they had not received any requests for health assistance from other provinces.
Meanwhile, both of Alberta's neighbours say they won't be able to help the province during the ICU crunch, with Saskatchewan and B.C. officials saying current demands on their own health-care systems prevent them from providing resources to Alberta.
“However, we have told Alberta that if there are things we can do to support them, we will. And if we can take patients on in the future, we will,” B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a statement.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey also offered aid in a statement on Twitter.
“The provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta have long had close ties, with so many travelling back and forth for work or visits with family,” Furey said. “I spoke with Premier (Jason) Kenney today to offer any support we can provide in their battle against COVID-19. We are all united.”
Alberta's bid to bolster its health-system capacity comes as the province faces the highest ICU admission rates in Canada. There are now 222 Albertans in ICU with COVID-19; Ontario, which has three times Alberta's population, has 191. Alberta has a total of 896 hospitalizations from the virus.
Yiu said Thursday afternoon Alberta had reached out to B.C., Ontario and Manitoba. The province also planned to contact Quebec “and potentially another province” to request aid. “We have reached out to other provinces to see if they have any available space where Albertans could get the care that they need, and we're asking them if they have skilled front-line staff who may be willing to come to Alberta to assist us,” Yiu said.
“We remain hopeful that it will not come to those terms, as our teams continue to add critical-care capacity in Alberta. I cannot stress enough how serious the situation is in our hospitals. I promise you we will continue to do all that we can to provide care to Albertans.”
AHS said Thursday afternoon there are currently 268 total patients in Alberta ICUS, with 83 per cent of them receiving treatment for COVID-19. The province has added 137 additional ICU beds to deal with the demand, giving it 86-per-cent capacity. But without those additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would sit at 155 per cent.
There has been a 16-per-cent increase in ICU admissions in Alberta over the past week, the steepest such climb during the pandemic.
Alberta could run out of staffed ICU beds on Sept. 29, an internal AHS planning document suggests. But the Opposition NDP is arguing the projections use assumptions that are too optimistic, and capacity could be used up earlier.
The projection makes several assumptions. It includes increases of only four to six COVID-19 patients in ICU each day, despite Alberta recently averaging about twice that number. It also assumes only 54 patients who don't have COVID-19 will be in ICUS on any given day, even though this number has fluctuated considerably over recent weeks.