More ICU transfers from Sask. to Ontario planned for next week, SPSA says

By the end of the weekend, there will be nine critically ill Saskatchewan patients in Ontario hospitals, according to the president of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA).

And Marlo Pritchard says more patients are expected to be flown to Ontario next week.

“We are anticipating that the number of ICU transfers will increase next week to roughly two to four patients per day for the next several days to further reduce the strain on the health-care system,” he told reporters during a COVID briefing on Friday.

Six ICU patients had been transferred from Saskatchewan to Ontario by the end of the day Wednesday. One was to be moved Friday, with one to follow on each of Saturday and Sunday.

In a media release late Friday afternoon, the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre said Ontario had the capacity to take in as many as nine more Saskatchewan patients.

Three transfers would occur on each of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Pritchard said the transfers are always dependent on several factors, including weather, intensive care unit capacity, whether the planes transporting the patients can fly, and patient stability.

He’s grateful to the Province of Ontario, the Ontario Critical Command Centre, doctors and nurses and other health-care professionals caring for Saskatchewan patients.

It’s not clear at this point how many patients in total may be sent out of Saskatchewan for care, but the SPSA continues to announce the numbers of patients sent to Ontario through official channels.

There had been some confusion about the number of transfers, with an Ontario doctor suggesting the Saskatchewan government had planned to send 12 patients to his province before cancelling some transfers.

Doctors in Saskatchewan also tweeted the province had decided against sending some patients east after initially planning to do so. But the provincial government said it didn’t cancel any transfers.

As of Friday, there were 80 COVID patients in Saskatchewan ICUs.

Federal government response

Last week, the province said it had officially asked the federal government for help, including requesting additional ICU nurses and specialists to help with the ongoing capacity issues in Saskatchewan hospitals.

Pritchard says meetings between officials are continuing.

“We expect to continue those discussions and planning over the weekend and good progress has (been made) and continues to be made,” he said. “I expect to have more information soon about having boots on the ground at some point next week.”

Pritchard has said the help could include staff from the military or other federal government sources.

On Sept. 24, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu tweeted that she had spoken with provincial Health Minister Paul Merriman and told him her government was ready to help Saskatchewan whenever needed.

Shahab pushing for more

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, once again said during the conference call that he wants to see more vaccinations done in Saskatchewan.

One way to do that is to get more employers to mandate vaccinations.

“Every employment setting, large or small, should have mandatory vaccine or test policies and that includes daycares, schools, other large mining or other operations as well,” Shahab said.

While that would help lower the risk of transmission, Shahab said things have changed in employment settings since the early stages of the pandemic.

“We’re not seeing the same number of outbreaks in workplaces now, or if we see an outbreak, it’s maybe one or two (people) out of 10 and not six or seven out of 10,” he said.

The number of COVID cases per day has dropped over the past few weeks, but testing numbers also are down. And while the number of cases and active cases are falling, Shahab said there’s one new trend that’s starting to develop.

“What we’re seeing is something we have never seen before,” he said. “We are seeing cases pop up in almost every small community throughout Saskatchewan.”