Alberta's top doctor admits move to COVID-19 endemic was "too early" | FULL
CA, 10 Sep 2021
Alberta's chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw admitted Thursday that moving the province into an endemic stage of COVID-19 was "too early."
Hinshaw admitted that the changes announced in late July were made by “looking at the evidence that was available at the time,” but were premature.
“Clearly, the move to endemic was too early.”
Hinshaw said her team saw trends indicating the move was made too early in early August.
Alberta’s health system continues to strain under the fourth wave of COVID-19, fueled significantly by the Delta variant and unvaccinated people needing urgent hospital care.
As of Thursday, there were 679 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, including 154 being treated in the ICU.
Alberta Health Services’ baseline ICU capacity is 173 beds. An additional 93 surge beds have been added to meet the rising care needs.
As of Thursday afternoon, ICU capacity across Alberta was at 87 per cent.
“Remember, that includes surge beds,” said AHS CEO Dr. Verna Yiu. “If we had not added additional surge beds, we’d be over 130 per cent.”
Of the 231 Albertans in ICU, 70 per cent are patients with COVID-19.
On Wednesday, AHS announced it made the difficult decision to postpone all elective and many outpatient surgeries this week to increase ICU capacity and redeploy staff to ICU and COVID-19 units.
Urgent cancer surgeries will continue to be done, AHS, as well as emergent operations.
Some less-urgent cancer surgeries may have to be postponed, AHS said.
Health Minister Tyler Shandro said $22 million is being provided over two years to retain and attract health care aides.
He also said Alberta is providing $14 million to support short-term staffing increases in home care agencies and continuing care operators to add new staff to help during the fourth wave. The money can be used to increase capacity for COVID-19 screening, cleaning and respite care.
The goal, Shandro said, was to move more patients from the hospital and either back home – where they can receive care – or into a continuing care facility.
Yiu said the investment will help AHS preserve space in acute care and “expedite the discharge of patients waiting in hospitals.”
She said there are about 400 patients in acute care who could potentially go home, 200 of whom could be moved into continuing care spaces in the next two weeks.
ICU capacity, Yiu stressed, is the biggest concern.
The immediate solution to that is postponing or delaying surgeries, she said.
About 89 per cent of ICU patients being treated for COVID-19 are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, Yiu added.
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Hinshaw admitted that the changes announced in late July were made by “looking at the evidence that was available at the time,” but were premature.
“Clearly, the move to endemic was too early.”
Hinshaw said her team saw trends indicating the move was made too early in early August.
Alberta’s health system continues to strain under the fourth wave of COVID-19, fueled significantly by the Delta variant and unvaccinated people needing urgent hospital care.
As of Thursday, there were 679 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, including 154 being treated in the ICU.
Alberta Health Services’ baseline ICU capacity is 173 beds. An additional 93 surge beds have been added to meet the rising care needs.
As of Thursday afternoon, ICU capacity across Alberta was at 87 per cent.
“Remember, that includes surge beds,” said AHS CEO Dr. Verna Yiu. “If we had not added additional surge beds, we’d be over 130 per cent.”
Of the 231 Albertans in ICU, 70 per cent are patients with COVID-19.
On Wednesday, AHS announced it made the difficult decision to postpone all elective and many outpatient surgeries this week to increase ICU capacity and redeploy staff to ICU and COVID-19 units.
Urgent cancer surgeries will continue to be done, AHS, as well as emergent operations.
Some less-urgent cancer surgeries may have to be postponed, AHS said.
Health Minister Tyler Shandro said $22 million is being provided over two years to retain and attract health care aides.
He also said Alberta is providing $14 million to support short-term staffing increases in home care agencies and continuing care operators to add new staff to help during the fourth wave. The money can be used to increase capacity for COVID-19 screening, cleaning and respite care.
The goal, Shandro said, was to move more patients from the hospital and either back home – where they can receive care – or into a continuing care facility.
Yiu said the investment will help AHS preserve space in acute care and “expedite the discharge of patients waiting in hospitals.”
She said there are about 400 patients in acute care who could potentially go home, 200 of whom could be moved into continuing care spaces in the next two weeks.
ICU capacity, Yiu stressed, is the biggest concern.
The immediate solution to that is postponing or delaying surgeries, she said.
About 89 per cent of ICU patients being treated for COVID-19 are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, Yiu added.
For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/8175915/alberta-health-covid-19-icu-surge-september-8-2021/
Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc
Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ
Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt
Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB
#GlobalNews #COVID #AlbertaCOVID-19Update
