Via The Globe and Mail: Edmonton hospital double-bunking COVID patients as virus strains ICU. Excerpt:
An Edmonton hospital is double-bunking COVID-19 patients receiving intensive care as the province’s rapid increase in infections pushes ICU capacity to its limit.
Doctors raised concerns about intensive-care patients sharing rooms at the University of Alberta Hospital as the provincial health authority’s internal projections show an increasingly precarious situation for the province’s ICUs.
Kerry Williamson, spokesman for Alberta Health Services, confirmed the double bunking, in which two people are treated in an ICU room designed for one patient, but said that is something that could have happened even before the pandemic if the space was required.
“Double-bunking patients safely and appropriately allows us to increase ICU capacity, and ensure we can meet increasing demand on our ICUs,” the statement said.
Hospitals in Calgary are not currently double bunking, he said, though that is also part of the COVID-19 surge plan for the city.
The Alberta government has been attempting to bolster its acute-care and ICU capacity in the face of rapidly escalating COVID-19 infections that have pushed hospitals beyond capacity and caused intensive-care admissions to increase sharply.
Mr. Williamson said in an e-mail that Calgary exceeded its maximum ICU capacity Monday, but had space because 10 new beds had been added.
Edmonton was at 95-per-cent ICU capacity. Twenty acute-care hospitals, including the major ones in Calgary and Edmonton, are dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks of their own.
