Health-care workers on edge as number of Albertans hospitalized with COVID-19 doubles

Doctors and nurses are warning that Alberta's health system is alreadyunder strain as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge and the respiratory virus season has yet to kick into high gear.

Internal Alberta Health Services data obtained by CBC News shows the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has surpassed 900 and has roughly doubled in about a month.

That includes all patients who are COVID-positive in hospital. ICU admissions have also risen over the past month.

This data has not been publicly available for months because the provincial government changed the way it reports COVID statistics.

"The concern for me is we're already hitting capacity issues and we're still relatively early on in the respiratory season," said Dr. Arun Abbi, president of the emergency medicine section with the Alberta Medical Association.

"The peak last year was about 1,500 to 1,600."

ThreeCOVID patients were admitted by Abbi in one nightshift alone at the Foothills Medical Centre earlier this week.

At the same time, he said, ERs continue to be plagued by backlogs of patients who are admitted but can't be moved upstairs because there are no available beds on the wards.

On that same nightshift, just under half of the open ERbedswere taken up with such patients,according to Abbi.

"And I worry by the end of November or December, are we going to be having even more beds blocked with admitted patients?"

Outbreak concerns

In Edmonton, Dr. Neeja Bakshi is worried as she watches the latest COVID-19 wave.

"We've definitely seen a huge uptick in the last few months," said Bakshi, an internal medicine physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

"[There are] a lot of outbreaks in hospitals all throughout the province, which indicates that the prevalence and the transmission rates are quite high."

• Vaccination urged as COVID-19, flu shot bookings open in Alberta

As of Tuesday, 19 acute care facilities were reporting COVID-19 outbreaks. Edmonton hospitals, which have recently enacted a new AHS masking directive, are particularly hard hit.

And, according to Bakshi, her department is already limiting transfers from rural hospitals due to capacity issues.

"It's not sustainable. I would argue it's already past where we should have been. I do think that this is going to become a huge problem."

• AHS adopts new masking directive for acute care facilities to prevent spread of COVID-19

The United Nurses of Alberta is also concerned.

"We saw what happened last year with the 'tri-demic.'Hospitals were overwhelmed. Staff were just completely burned out. And we're seeing Part 2 of that about to happen again," said Cameron Westhead, second vice-president with the United Nurses of Alberta.

He said workload and capacity are significantly impactedby COVID-positive patients because of isolation requirements and the need for more personal protective equipment.

According to Bakshi, when patients pick up the virus through hospital outbreaks, it still adds to the burden.

"That prolongs their admissions. It also blocks certain units and certain rooms from taking admissions, which again creates a backslide into the [ER]."

In a statement,Alberta Health Services said all patients continue to receive safe, high quality care and it's working to support staff.

"Our hospitals remain very busyas we continue to experience an increase in respiratory illnesses and hospital outbreaks, as well as higher acuity patients," spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in an email.

"It is not unusual for our busiest urban and regional hospitals to run at or near capacity, which is whywe have a fluid system and can expand capacity as needed to ensure our patients get the care they need."

According to Williamson,AHS continues to "aggressively recruit" physicians, nurses and paramedics.

Calls for more data

There are concerns that without more specific data it's difficult for Albertans to contextualize the severity of the COVID situation and the corresponding pressure on hospitals.

The provincial government stopped publishing COVID-19 data in the summer and launched a new respiratory virus dashboard in September.

Rather than tracking the number of people with COVID taking up hospital beds, it nowreports weekly COVIDadmissions.

As of Wednesday, the dashboard showed 742 hospital admissions since Aug. 27, which the province defines as the start of the respiratory virus season.

"This government likes to talk about personal responsibility and making decisions that are best for yourself and your family. But we don't have the data to make those kinds of decisions," said Westhead.

In a statement emailed to CBC News, the press secretary to Health Minister Adriana LaGrangedid not providespecific answers to questions about the reporting change.

"Alberta's government recently revised how we present data to Albertans to depict the current situation more accurately," said Charlotte Taillon.

"The updated dashboard harmonizes the reporting of respiratory virus data, aligning with practices adopted by other provinces."

Abbiis also calling for more transparency.

"Tell people the way the situation is. I would love to see how many are inhospital with COVID and what the hospital capacities are at. I want people to understand when they come, that's why we're in such dire straits," he said.

"It makes people maybe aware that it's still out there and people are still getting sick from it, more so than influenza."

Meanwhile, the president of the Alberta Medical Association, Dr. Paul Parks, said some hospital unitsin Alberta are already dramatically over-capacity.

"We just know this is going to be a struggle for our system. And we have to do everything we can to shore it up, protect it and support the front-line workers."

Influenza and RSV cases have yet to really surge so far this season.

And Parks warns that when hospitals fill up with people who have all these respiratory viruses, the entire system suffers.

"That impacts all the health care in the system. It gets to the point where we can't take care of surgeries as quickly. We can't take care of heart attacks," he said.

"Everybody gets impacted by this."