Sask. children's hospital ICU accepts adults in COVID-19 surge plan
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is shuttling some adult intensive care patients to the province’s children’s hospital in the face of surging COVID-19 cases.
“Critical care capacity is under strain and all avenues of support need to be explored to so we can continue to care for extremely ill patients,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Susan Shaw said in a news release.
Adult patients requiring an ICU bed will be considered for admission to Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon, according to the health authority.
Patients are selected through a clinical review by the adult and pediatric critical care physicians.
Pediatric patients will continue to be prioritized for critical care at the hospital’s PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and no pediatric patients will be displaced, according to the SHA.
The change is effective immediately and is part of a larger SHA surge plan announced Sept. 17 to prepare for a growing number of COVID patients throughout the health system.
The PICU will be able to surge to 18 critical care beds, including six additional flex beds for both pediatric and selected adult patients.
Staffing plans have been developed and continue to be secured for the additional beds, much of which will come through service slowdowns.
The SHA’s normal (ICU) capacity is 79 beds. To increase ICU capacity, the SHA has also added 22 surge beds.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 78 of the 101 available ICU beds were full and two adult COVID infectious patients had been admitted to JPCH.
'DISTURBING' NEWS
“The news now that we have the children's hospital ICU being used for COVID is very disturbing,” Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said.
“If we had a tragic accident involving children now, and the potential for the ICU being overwhelmed, it would be so devastating.”
Crowded ICUs and emergency rooms are also affecting wait times for ambulances across the province.
“We are seeing unprecedented offload delays in Saskatoon and Regina,” said Kelly Prime, the past president of Paramedic Services Chiefs of Saskatchewan.
The province has 104 ambulance services and 3,000 practitioners – and each one is feeling pressure from the surge of COVID-19 cases, Prime said.
Paramedics are waiting up to six hours for patients to find a bed in Regina hospitals, while in Saskatoon it can take up to 17 hours.
“That's just take your stretcher, take your patient, go wait in the back hallway until something frees up, so we can take our patient off the stretcher and put them in a bed.”
Then, Prime says, paramedics must wait until that patient has been treated by a physician or nurse, and determined the next course of action.
“In Saskatoon, you're seeing anywhere from an hour to four hours of waiting time for an ambulance to respond,” said Prime.
“This is the worst that I have ever seen it, and it is getting compounded for rural due to labor shortage.”
Rural Saskatchewan is where the situation is the most dire, as paramedics are working anywhere from 16 to 18 hours a day to 40 hours straight with few breaks, he said.
“They're just running call to call to call to call, taking patients to the city, bringing patients back from the city, which is creating such fatigue on them that they're leaving the industry, which has created a labor shortage for us.”
Prime says the industry needs to see proper funding and competitive wages to keep paramedics working in rural areas.
“In my 30 years I've never seen it this bad.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
There's actually no such thing as vegetables. Here's why you should eat them anyway
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
'It looked so legit': Ontario man pays $7,700 for luxury villa found on Booking.com, but the listing was fake
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
The Met Gala was in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among the standout stars
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
BREAKING Israeli forces seize Rafah border crossing in Gaza, putting ceasefire talks on knife's edge
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as ceasefire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife’s edge.
Canadian cadets rock mullets and place second at U.S. military competition
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
Noelia Voigt resigns as Miss USA, citing her mental health
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever
Vladimir Putin began his fifth term Tuesday as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands.
Winnipeg man admits to killing four women, argues he's not criminally responsible
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Mediterranean staple may lower your risk of death from dementia, study finds
A daily spoonful of olive oil could lower your risk of dying from dementia, according to a new study by Harvard scientists.