Alberta Health Services reported Wednesday that physicians and staff at some Edmonton-area intensive care units are receiving harassing phone calls to their units.
AHS said the calls are from “people questioning patient numbers and capacity.”
“It is unacceptable for anyone to harass our staff and physicians — it’s never acceptable and it’s unfathomable now.”
“ICU and overall hospital capacity in the Edmonton zone and across the province remains high, with Edmonton currently sitting at 87 per cent and overall provincial capacity at 84 per cent,” AHS said in a series of messages on Twitter Wednesday.
The health organization also shared a link to current ICU capacity, demand and surge bed statistics.
As of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, AHS said Alberta has 373 ICU beds, including 200 additional spaces — a 115 per cent increase over its baseline of 173.
“AHS has opened 25 additional ICU surge spaces in the past seven days,” spokesperson Kerry Williamson told Global News.
As of Wednesday, there were 313 patients in Alberta ICUs, “the vast majority of whom are COVID positive.
“The number of patients in ICU has increased by five per cent in the past seven days,” he added.
Provincially, ICU capacity (including additional surge beds) is currently at 84 per cent. Without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 181 per cent.
The Calgary zone ICU is operating at 79 per cent of current capacity.
The Edmonton zone is operating at 87 per cent of current capacity.
The Central zone ICU is operating at 87 per cent of current capacity.
The South zone ICU is currently operating at 81 per cent capacity.
The North zone is currently operating at 104 per cent capacity.
“AHS continues to do all it can to ensure we have enough ICU capacity to meet patient demand, including opening additional spaces and redeploying staff,” Williamson said.
The Canadian Medical Association says “extraordinary measures” are needed to stop the COVID-19 surges in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Dr. Katharine Smart, head of the group, said in a news release Wednesday the situations are “heartbreaking” and that an “all hands on deck” approach must be implemented.
“Any and all measures available must be applied to curb the rate of mortality, support workers and start addressing the consequences of patients’ whose care is now on hold indefinitely,” she said.
The group targeted both the provincial and federal governments, asking them to increase vaccination through mandatory inoculation in health-care settings, and consider implementing “firebreakers” or “circuit breakers” style shutdowns.