`UNPRECEDENTED' ICU MEASURES

Patients doubled up in rooms as COVID strains Regina health system

Regina's intensive care units are taking the unprecedented step of putting two patients to a room, as managers warn that the city's health-care workers are reaching a breaking point amid a “dramatic” rise in COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Jeff Betcher, an ICU physician and Regina area lead for critical care, warned those pressures could have ripple effects even after the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.

“If we tax our health-care workers and our health-care system to the point of breakage, when this is over there are going to be a lot of people that are very tired,” he told media on a virtual news conference Friday. “I'm not sure if the public would be confident and be able to feel like they've got fresh health-care workers looking after them when this is over, because they've stretched themselves to the max.”

As of Friday, there were 81 COVID-19 patients in Regina's hospitals, including a record 30 in intensive care units. The ICU is now on bypass, meaning patients are rerouted outside the city when possible.

The SHA has added 18 ICU beds above the 27 typically in Regina to deal with the surge. All 45 beds are generally in use by patients with COVID-19 or other needs. The SHA has opted to double up patients in rooms fitted with privacy dividers, rather than take over other parts of the hospitals.

“This action is unprecedented,” said Lori Garchinski, the Saskatchewan Health Authority's director of provincial programs for tertiary care.

Betcher said double occupancy can be done safely. But he urged Regina residents “to do their part and help the teams fight this pandemic by getting vaccinated when eligible and following the public health orders — wearing masks, physical distancing, staying home.”

The next step isn't a field hospital, since that proposed facility was never intended to care for patients needing intensive care.

Garchinski said Regina ICUS would continue with double occupancies, and would then move to expand into medical surgical units.

“Obviously we don't want to do that,” she said.

According to Garchinski, Regina ICUS are not now concerned about running out of ventilators, and Betcher said they currently have enough drugs to treat patients.

Stocks have been tight for the vital anti-inflammatory drug tocilizumab, but a shipment arrived Friday to restore supplies.

“Before this shipment came in, I think we might have had one dose left,” said Betcher.

Above all, the SHA officials who spoke to media Friday worried about pressures on staff. “They 've spent many, many, many hours putting in overtime,” said Garchinski.

She said Regina ICUS have the advantage of relying on other Saskatchewan hospitals and drawing on the resources of a single health authority.

But as variants spread far beyond Regina, there are fears that the pressures now hitting Regina will increasingly come to other intensive care units.

Garchinski wouldn't paint a picture of what that would look like. “We've never been there before,” she said.

“I would hope we don't have to answer that question,” she said.