Alberta patients may be transferred half way across the country to Ontario as hospitals fill up

By: Thomas I. LiknessEBC News Service


(Eagle News) — With hospitals running out of space to treat people because of a surge of COVID-19 cases, patients may have to be transferred to Ontario for treatment.

“Ontario has graciously offered their help and we’re in discussions with them regarding potential transfer of patients if needed,” Alberta Health Services CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said Thursday. “We remain hopeful that it will not come to those terms.”

The adjacent provinces of Saskatchewan and B.C have already said they have no extra space to take out-of-province patients.

Ontario is a three to four hour flight from either Edmonton or Calgary.

On Thursday, AHS reported nearly 900 COVID-19 patients in hospital — 222 of them in intensive care.

Albertans to get regular COVID updates again

After weeks of silence, the Alberta government is speaking publicly about the pandemic.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw has committed to hold twice weekly updates for reporters.

Yesterday, Hinshaw, Yiu and Premier Jason Kenney announced sweeping restrictions in a bid to stem the transmission of the virus.

Hinshaw won’t speculate on how long it will take for these measures to produce results or how long these measures will remain in effect.

“We know that when restrictions are implemented it typically takes one to two weeks before we see the impact of those on cases and then it can take longer before the impact of that is seen on our hospital system,” said Hinshaw.
(Eagle News Service)