Sask. health-care system strained as number of COVID-19 ICU patients rises

Saskatchewan’s intensive care units continue to be stretched to the breaking point by COVID-19.

During a conversation with Gormley on Friday, Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said the health-care system is facing “a dire situation” due to the virus.

According to Livingstone, more COVID patients have been hospitalized in Saskatchewan in the first three-plus months of 2021 than were admitted to hospitals around the province throughout 2020.

As of Thursday, there were 48 COVID patients in intensive care units around Saskatchewan. That included 34 such patients in Regina.

If ICU cases climb around the province — given that other, non-COVID patients also require intensive care — Livingstone said that would push the system too far.

“If that was to expand to other areas of the province because of the aggressive spread of the variants, certainly we would be in a situation provincewide where we would be struggling with caring for both COVID and non-COVID patients that are in emergency or critical-care situations,” Livingstone said during a conference call Thursday. “There is just no doubt that that would be the case …

“With respect to the ethical framework, if we’re in one of those situations where we have exhausted our ability to expand ICU, both from a staff perspective and providing safe care, we move into that area that I would describe more as a M*A*S*H unit, where patients are being triaged and decisions are being made by clinicians using that framework to appropriately care for the people that are more likely to benefit.”

Livingstone noted surgeons every day are making decisions on what patients can be taken to operating rooms, since most of those people require a stay in ICU after their surgery. As a result, some surgeries are being postponed.

“We’re actually not able to maintain our usual daily types of surgery in that space because we just don’t have the ICU beds on a daily basis to accommodate that,” Livingstone said.

Saskatchewan already has increased the number of ICU beds available in the province to 117 from 78 and has slowed down some services to accommodate more patients.

As well, some ICU patients are sharing rooms as the SHA looks to expand capacity, while others have been moved to other ICUs around the province if it’s feasible to move them.

The problem, Livingstone said, isn’t beds or equipment. It’s a lack of staff members like respiratory therapists, ICU nurses and ICU doctors who are needed to keep the units operating at peak efficiency.

Livingstone told Gormley he has heard of some nurses working 20 days straight and doctors working around the clock.

“They’re basically doing heroic feats to care for individuals,” Livingstone said.

“We need everyone in this province to understand that in the weeks to come, as we see that light at the end of the tunnel with our vaccination program, it’s not time to loosen up on restrictions. We need the public’s health to support our acute-care system so that we don’t become overwhelmed across the province.”