SHA takes next step in fight against COVID

The Saskatchewan Health Authority is stepping up its efforts in order to fight the fourth wave of COVID-19 in the province.

In a media release Friday, the SHA said it was activating “a second phase of surge plans” to help ease the strain on the province’s hospitals caused by rising COVID cases. That will include a temporary slowdown of elective procedures.

“Provincial criteria is being established to ensure consistent application across all care teams of what procedures will be temporarily paused,” the SHA release said.

Individuals who had elective procedures booked are to be contacted directly if their bookings are being postponed. The SHA said patients will start being affected next week.

Services for mental health and addictions, and immunizations for children under the age of two will continue.

“Right now, we are not in usual conditions. We have 50 patients in the intensive care unit with COVID. That is 50 people who have, for the most part, a preventable disease and without them, we would be in a very different place,” Dr. Susan Shaw, chief medical officer for the SHA, said during a news conference.

When Shaw started the day, there were also 26 people in the ICU with non-COVID illnesses. There were five beds available across the entire province.

She isn’t sure if the health-care system can handle a catastrophic event right now.

“If something such as Humboldt were to happen again, and I hope it never does, but if we had something like that where we had 16, 17, 18 people needing an intensive care unit bed in a hurry, I worry,” Shaw said in reference to the bus crash in April of 2018 involving the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos.

As the surge plan takes effect, some patients may be transferred to hospitals that aren’t the closest to their homes.

“The pressure on our hospitals is a direct result of the ongoing pandemic of the unvaccinated,” SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said in the release. “The result is that many Saskatchewan residents will now go without the health services they need to preserve their quality of life.”

The SHA is to focus on COVID care while also supporting emergency and cancer procedures and treatments and cases deemed urgent over the next six weeks.

Under the directive issued by the Emergency Operations Centre, the SHA is setting new targets for intensive care units and hospital capacity.

The number of beds in ICUs will increase from a baseline of 79 up to 175 — a number that previously was set at 130. The ICU beds will accommodate 125 COVID ICU patients (a target previously set at 80) and up to 50 non-COVID ICU patients.

As of Friday, there were 50 COVID patients in ICUs across Saskatchewan.

The SHA also plans to increase hospital capacity across the province to handle 350 COVID non-ICU patients, up from the previous target of 255.

As of Friday, 170 people were receiving inpatient care for COVID in the province.

Some staff also will be redeployed to do contact tracing for up to 750 lab-confirmed positive cases per day, and to administer COVID tests. The SHA said it hopes to have wait times down to no longer than 24 hours at testing centres or no more than 90 minutes at drive-throughs.

“We have hit a critical point, and are now on the verge of the largest test our health-care system has faced since this pandemic began,” Livingstone said.

“Teams are being asked to support the health-care system’s ability to maintain services to those at greatest risk, while ensuring the SHA can support testing and contact tracing to help slow the spread of COVID-19.”