Alberta health-care providers face growing mental health toll as ICUs pushed to breaking point
CBC
With no end in sight to Alberta's unrelenting fourth wave of COVID-19, health-care providers are bracing themselves for even more heartbreaking scenes in the weeks to come.
Nurses and doctors — already exhausted and traumatized — say they're gutted that Premier Jason Kenney didn't announce further public health restrictions on Tuesday to relieve the mounting pressure in hospitals, despite growing and desperate pleas for a so-called "firebreak" lockdown.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,100 Albertans were being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, including 263 in intensive care units. Alberta ICUs have ballooned to 184 per cent of their normal capacity. When factoring in extra surge beds added, capacity is at 86 per cent.
"It's heartbreaking," said Keri Price, a Calgary pediatric ICU nurse at Alberta Children's Hospital who was redeployed to care for critically ill adult patients.
"It's really sad to see all these patients with no families by their side. And alone. And dying alone."
These traumatic scenes are now routine in Alberta hospitals.
"It felt like a war zone," said Edmonton emergency room physician Dr. Shazma Mithani, who worked a shift in the ICU this week as part of her regular rotation.
The holiday season has arrived in Thunder Bay, and that means reduced hours, or closures, for businesses, city offices, and other amenities.
As Toronto’s food scene continues to grow, some in the industry say the pool of professional chefs hasn’t kept up with demand.
Police have charged a truck driver from the Hamilton area in a hit-and-run crash that killed a tow truck operator who had been stopped while helping a driver on the side of Highway 401 outside Woodstock, Ont.
Power has been restored to most of Haines Junction after a problem earlier on Monday at the local generating station.
A 56-year-old man will return to court on Tuesday for a charge of second-degree murder, laid in a case London police have called an act of femicide.
The chairman of the committee leading Newfoundland and Labrador's independent review of the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding with Quebec is backing the impartiality of his three-man team.
The province has taken a major step toward restarting its onshore natural gas industry.
Allan Legere, serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Alberta, has been denied a request for full parole.
Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club has asked a judge to decide whether the City of Winnipeg can ignore a provincial decision about residential housing slated to rise next to the club.
A Saskatoon woman says she watched her neighbour's police standoff play out in real time on social media.
One person is dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, following an incident Friday at a building in Regina.
A wind storm that caused the cancellation of all daytime ferries between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland stranded passengers on both sides of the Salish Sea, adding challenges for travelers in an already hectic holiday travel week.
Maritime Electric has officially filed plans with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission for the rotating power outages it says may be necessary this winter to prevent a provincewide blackout.