Alberta’s health system chief says the COVID-19 hospital crisis has gotten so severe that a key reason the system hasn’t collapsed is because patients are dying.
“Every day we see a new peak (total critically ill patients),” said Dr. Verna Yiu, president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, on Thursday.
Yiu said hospitals have admitted an average of two dozen or more critically ill COVID-19 patients each day since Sunday.
“It’s tragic that we can only keep up with these kinds of numbers because in part some of our ICU patients have passed away,” he said. “This reality has a profound and lasting impact on our UCI teams.”
On Thursday there were 310 intensive care patients, the vast majority of them with COVID, and the vast majority of COVID patients are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.
Alberta normally has 173 ICU beds, but has doubled that number to 350 by occupying additional spaces, such as operating rooms, and reassigning staff.
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The result is that non-urgent surgeries were canceled en masse across the province, including transplants, tumors, cancer operations and surgeries on children.
Doctors are being informed when resources are so scarce that they have to decide on the spot which patients are receiving life-saving care and which are not.
Yiu said it is a fluid situation and they are still determining when and how doctors will be asked to make those life and death decisions.
The United Conservative Party government has turned to other provinces and the federal government for medical help.
Bill Blair, the federal minister for public safety and emergency preparedness, said Ottawa can help by providing more critical care medical personnel and taking patients by military air to other provinces.
Sad reality: Alberta’s top physician says COVID deaths prevent hospitals from being overrun. #ABpoli # Covid19
“The government of Canada will support the recent request of the provincial government and provide the necessary support,” Blair wrote in a statement on social media early Thursday.
“Federal assistance includes a variety of capabilities, including deployment of (Canadian Armed Forces) medical resources and / or aeromedical evacuation capabilities, as well as deployment of Canadian Red Cross resources.”
There are more than 20,100 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta and more than 1,000 people hospitalized with the disease. Deaths have also been on the rise. 29 deaths were reported on Tuesday, 20 more on Wednesday, including the first person under the age of 20, and 17 on Thursday. More than 2,600 people have died in Alberta.
In Calgary, the Alberta Opposition NDP leader said it is time for Prime Minister Jason Kenney to hand over public health decisions related to COVID-19 to medical professionals.
Rachel Notley said it has become clear that Kenney is more focused on his political survival than the pandemic.
“It should never have come to this,” Notley said.
“Jason Kenney knew his plan hadn’t been working since July and did nothing. In fact, he went (on vacation). Throughout August and September, the PCU refused to act as the crisis intensified.
“Now all Albertans are suffering the consequences of the collective inaction and ineptitude of the PCU.”
Notley said sound public health decisions are being undermined by political compromises and asked that the decisions be turned over to Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer, backed by an independent scientific panel of advisers.
For months, Kenney has faced an escalation of criticism and is calling for his resignation over his handling of COVID-19. The criticism began before last Christmas when his government was slow to react to a second wave that was flooding hospitals. The government fell behind on the third wave again in May and is now chasing the pandemic again in what has become the fourth and worst wave.
At every stage, Kenney has been accused of pandering to anti-restriction elements in his party and waiting too late to implement rules to maintain public health.
Some United Conservative constituencies associations are pushing for an immediate review of their leadership.
Joel Mullan, the party’s vice chairman in charge of politics, has openly called for Kenney’s resignation, saying the public and the party have lost trust.
Kenney met with his group on Wednesday and then asked the party to conduct a leadership review beginning in late 2022.
“The Prime Minister spoke with the President … and requested that the 2022 PCU (Annual General Meeting) be held in the spring and that the scheduled leadership review occur at that time,” said Dave Prisco, communications director for the UCP, in a statement. “The party is working to confirm a date and place to make it happen.”
Kenney deflected journalists’ questions earlier this week on whether he should resign, saying he is focused on COVID-19 and not political intrigue.
This Canadian Press report was first published on September 23, 2021.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com