‘ICU if necessary, not necessarily ICU’: Alberta opens 50 new beds

Fifty new ICU beds promised by the Alberta authorities have been added to Alberta hospitals.

Thursday morning, Premier Jason Kenney and Well being Minister Jason Copping made the announcement at Mount Royal College’s nursing simulation lab.

“Everyone knows the previous two and a half years put unprecedented pressure on our public well being care system. The general public well being disaster unmasked a critical lack of capability in not simply Alberta however your complete Canadian well being care system,” Kenney mentioned.

The province made the preliminary addition announcement in March. In Might, 19 of the 50 had opened. And on Thursday, seven months later, the total 50 have been introduced to have opened in 12 completely different hospitals.

“It’s ‘ICU if crucial,’ not essentially ICU,” Copping mentioned. “When the beds usually are not in use, the nurses and different employees assigned to them will assist different areas of the hospital.

“The pandemic has proven that we want extra everlasting capability and we want extra employees, and we must be versatile with these sources.”

Within the Edmonton Zone, 18 ICU beds have been added all through the College of Alberta Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Sturgeon Group Hospital.

Within the Calgary Zone, the Foothills Medical Centre, the Peter Lougheed Centre, the Rockyview Basic Hospital and the South Well being Campus received a mixed 13 new ICU beds.

1:53
Alberta opens new ICU beds, medical doctors say extra must be accomplished to draw employees

The Crimson Deer Regional Hospital added eight ICU beds, six extra have been added to the Chinook Regional Hospital, and within the North Zone, the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital and the Northern Lights Regional Hospital received 5 new beds between them.

These 50 new beds brings the variety of ICU beds as much as 223.

In keeping with AHS information, there have been 188 sufferers in ICU throughout the province on Thursday – above the pre-pandemic baseline, however representing 88 per cent of the present capability.

A 12 months in the past, 257 COVID-19 sufferers have been in ICU, the pandemic excessive water mark up to now.

Kenney additionally introduced a memorandum of understanding with the Phillipines authorities to quick monitor credentialed Filipino nurses to work in Alberta.

The province additionally introduced a $3.5 million growth in academic alternatives for internationally-educated nurses.

“Nurses are the spine of our well being care system,” Copping mentioned, repeating a promise to proceed to broaden capability within the province’s healthcare system.

2:15
Funding for Edmonton’s new neurosciences ICU & Paying tribute to Joey Moss