Rapid spread of Omicron, staffing shortages could threaten patient care, say Alberta doctors, nurses

Alberta doctors and nurses are bracing for what's to come as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge upward — driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant — and they're warning this could, once again, have serious impacts on patient care.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 jumped 40 per cent, from 504 to 708, between Friday and Tuesday.

And the rapid increase  comes at a time when hospitals are already struggling with serious staffing shortages.

"We're very vulnerable as a health system right now," said Dr. Mike Weldon, an emergency room physician at Red Deer Regional Hospital, where more patients are showing up with COVID-19. 

"I would estimate we're probably 10 per cent down from being able to cover every shift with a safe margin.… I"m seeing beds closed in our department every second shift that I'm working."

According to the latest Alberta Health statistics, 5,589 health-care workers in the province have active COVID-19 infections. The hardest hit regions are the Calgary zone with 2,919 and the Edmonton zone with 1,852.

It is unclear how many of those individuals work in Alberta hospitals. What is also unclear is how many hospital staff are in isolation due to sickness or exposure. Alberta Health Services is not providing that information.

In addition, many staff are burned out after working through four earlier waves of the pandemic. Some have left the province. And on a regular basis rural hospitals are temporarily closing their emergency rooms due to staffing shortages.

"We're overcapacity, understaffed and everybody's very fatigued and morale is very low," said Dr. Paul Parks, section president of emergency medicine with the Alberta Medical Association.

"We're stretched as thin as you can go, so we have no real elasticity to absorb another wave."

He estimates Alberta's larger hospitals are filled to 110 per cent capacity but can only staff to roughly 90 per cent capacity.

And, according to Parks, that means emergency rooms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer are filling with patients waiting for beds.

He expects health officials will soon have to start postponing surgeries in an effort to keep the system afloat.

"We're very worried this is going to impact all of patient care, not just COVID patients. It's going to be anybody and everybody that needs to access the acute care system.… We know our ability to deliver timely care is going to be impacted desperately."