KENNEY'S KREW MIA
All elective surgeries in Calgary postponed due to spiking COVID-19 admissionsHospitalizations jumped significantly in the past 24 hours, going from 602 to 647, while those in ICU increased from 137 to 147
Author of the article: Bill Kaufmann
Publishing date:Sep 08, 2021 •
The Rockyview hospital as hospitals are seeing an increase in COVID patients in Calgary on Wednesday, September 8, 2021.
PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA
All scheduled elective surgeries in the Calgary area are being postponed for the rest of the week due to pressures from rising COVID-19 cases, Alberta Health Services said Wednesday.
Some outpatient procedures are also being postponed on a day when the deaths of 18 more Albertans from COVID-19 were reported in the past 24 hours, the largest single-day toll since Jan. 19, when 24 people died.
“We do not make these decisions lightly, & acknowledge that postponing surgeries has a deep impact on those patients, their families, & their loved ones,” AHS said in a tweet late Wednesday afternoon.
“Decisions related to other future surgery postponements across the coming weeks will be made based on the evolving situation.
“Only those patients who are impacted will be contacted and their procedures will be rescheduled as soon as possible. AHS will continue with all urgent and emergent procedures, as well as prioritized cancer surgeries.”
Hospitalizations also jumped significantly in the past 24 hours, going from 602 to 647, while those in ICU increased from 137 to 147 — a situation the AHS called “serious.”
Last Friday, AHS said 30 per cent of non-emergency surgeries were being postponed in the Calgary and South zones because of the virus pressure, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.
In a tweet Wednesday, Sherwood Park resident Eric Mulder posted what he said was a diagnostic image of a large tumour on his brain.
“My surgery was originally scheduled for today, but I received a call yesterday afternoon that the surgery has been cancelled indefinitely,” stated Mulder, who implored readers to raise the issue with government officials.
On Wednesday, a group of Alberta physicians sounded the alarm about a health-care system in crisis, with resources and staff stretched to the limit.
At the current rate, medical practitioners could be headed to triaging patients or deciding who should receive critical care, said Dr. Paul Parks.
“We hope we never get to critical triage but with increasing numbers and difficulties with capacity, we will be as a system forced to make those very difficult triage decisions,” said Parks, who was speaking on the Protect our Province panel.
There have already been difficult choices made on the distribution to patients of certain oxygen supplies in smaller centres, while shortages of some COVID-19 medicines have cropped up, he said.
Edmonton ICU physician Dr. Darren Markland had more encouraging words, saying those critical-care resources are being made available.
But he also sounded a warning.
“We are getting beds, I can assure you — we have added capacity,” he said.
“Our biggest challenge is human resources . . . we will continue to push forward and do these things but this is not a resource we can expand exponentially. Eventually it will bite you.”
The physicians said crowded ICUs have a cascading effect on other non-virus-related patients by pulling resources from them, even in emergency rooms.
On Wednesday, AHS said there are 95 ICU beds operating in the Calgary zone compared to the usual 66.
All scheduled elective surgeries in the Calgary area are being postponed for the rest of the week due to pressures from rising COVID-19 cases, Alberta Health Services said Wednesday.
Some outpatient procedures are also being postponed on a day when the deaths of 18 more Albertans from COVID-19 were reported in the past 24 hours, the largest single-day toll since Jan. 19, when 24 people died.
“We do not make these decisions lightly, & acknowledge that postponing surgeries has a deep impact on those patients, their families, & their loved ones,” AHS said in a tweet late Wednesday afternoon.
“Decisions related to other future surgery postponements across the coming weeks will be made based on the evolving situation.
“Only those patients who are impacted will be contacted and their procedures will be rescheduled as soon as possible. AHS will continue with all urgent and emergent procedures, as well as prioritized cancer surgeries.”
Hospitalizations also jumped significantly in the past 24 hours, going from 602 to 647, while those in ICU increased from 137 to 147 — a situation the AHS called “serious.”
Last Friday, AHS said 30 per cent of non-emergency surgeries were being postponed in the Calgary and South zones because of the virus pressure, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.
In a tweet Wednesday, Sherwood Park resident Eric Mulder posted what he said was a diagnostic image of a large tumour on his brain.
“My surgery was originally scheduled for today, but I received a call yesterday afternoon that the surgery has been cancelled indefinitely,” stated Mulder, who implored readers to raise the issue with government officials.
On Wednesday, a group of Alberta physicians sounded the alarm about a health-care system in crisis, with resources and staff stretched to the limit.
At the current rate, medical practitioners could be headed to triaging patients or deciding who should receive critical care, said Dr. Paul Parks.
“We hope we never get to critical triage but with increasing numbers and difficulties with capacity, we will be as a system forced to make those very difficult triage decisions,” said Parks, who was speaking on the Protect our Province panel.
There have already been difficult choices made on the distribution to patients of certain oxygen supplies in smaller centres, while shortages of some COVID-19 medicines have cropped up, he said.
Edmonton ICU physician Dr. Darren Markland had more encouraging words, saying those critical-care resources are being made available.
But he also sounded a warning.
“We are getting beds, I can assure you — we have added capacity,” he said.
“Our biggest challenge is human resources . . . we will continue to push forward and do these things but this is not a resource we can expand exponentially. Eventually it will bite you.”
The physicians said crowded ICUs have a cascading effect on other non-virus-related patients by pulling resources from them, even in emergency rooms.
On Wednesday, AHS said there are 95 ICU beds operating in the Calgary zone compared to the usual 66.
An infectious-disease clinician said the provincial government has dropped the ball in heading off the current crisis in acute care by not adopting vaccine passports or wider masking mandates
“After weeks and weeks of soaring cases and deafening silence from our leaders, the situation has come to a boiling point,” said Dr. Ilan Schwartz.
He said other provinces that imposed vaccine passports have seen a quick increase of up to 200 per cent in immunizations, while Alberta’s offer of $100 gift cards to encourage shots has seen a less than 20 per cent difference.
“It’s really a paltry increase,” said Schwartz, adding some of that total was likely due to municipal vaccine mandates.
Last week’s announcement of a provincewide mask mandate, he said, dangerously exempted schools and places of worship, while he mocked a rule shutting down alcohol service at 10 p.m.
“It’s really magical or delusional thinking — COVID is not a vampire,
it does not only come out at nighttime after 10 p.m.,” said Schwartz.
The limited measures announced last week will only delay meaningful action by another two weeks, he said.
AHS also said it’s adding some additional field hospital space in Calgary and Edmonton in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 onslaught.
“Calgary zone is opening five beds in the Pandemic Response Unit located at South Health Campus to be used for day medicine patients, not patients with COVID-19,” AHS said in an email.
Alberta reported 1,166 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 11 per cent. The number of active cases now exceeds 15,000 as of the Labour Day long weekend, with many of the most recent case figures and hospitalization numbers the highest since May during the pandemic’s third wave.
AHS said 89 per cent of patients admitted to ICU are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
The NDP’s health-care critic chided the UCP government for lifting COVID-19 restrictions in the summer, calling it a political miscalculation they’re now running from.
“Stop hiding. Look at what is happening in our hospitals and communities,” said David Shepherd.
“It’s time to step up and show leadership. Implement the same measures that we see are working in other jurisdictions, including vaccine passports.”
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
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