alberta’s health-care system is on the verge of collapse, warns a group of physicians who are pleading with the government to strengthen public health measures to fend off a relentless fourth wave of covid-19.
dr. shazma mithani, an emergency room physician in edmonton, said a staffing crisis, overwhelmed intensive care units and mixed messaging from the province has created a “dire” situation.
her biggest fear, she said, is that doctors will need to triage patients should hospitalizations continue to mount.
“we don’t want to have to make these decisions where we’re choosing who gets to have (intensive) care or not. and we’re getting closer and closer to that every day,” mithani said in an interview.
alberta health services, the province’s health-care provider, said in a statement wednesday there were 258 intensive care beds in the province, which includes 85 added spaces. it said intensive care unit capacity sat at 87 per cent — just slightly below a seven-day average of 91 per cent.
mithani said the government needs to listen to frontline health-care workers and implement stronger public health restrictions to prevent the health system from crumbling.
“this is much, much worse than i think people understand,” she said. “we, as health-care workers, are telling you that things are very dire, that icu beds are running out, that we are stretched very thin in terms of our hospital capacity.”