Saskatchewan air-lifted one critically-ill COVID-19 patient to Ontario on Monday morning, October 18.
During a news conference with media reporters, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) President Marlo Pritchard said another five ICU patients are also expected to be transported to Ontario in the coming days to ease pressure on an already over-burdened critical care system.
Pritchard said Saskatchewan has also made a formal request to the federal government for specialized medical personnel with ICU-related experience and skills. There is no word yet from the federal government on when, or how many, military or civilian emergency medical personnel may be coming to Saskatchewan in response to the request.
Pritchard said the province’s emergency management team had earlier reached out to multiple jurisdictions “across North America” seeking medical personnel to help ease the prolonged high demand for critical care. All jurisdictions, including Canadian provinces and American states, indicated they were not able to deploy any personnel at this time, he said.
Ontario did offer to provide critical care for patients in hospitals in that province.
Pritchard said while the transfer of patients is needed in order to ensure Saskatchewan’s critical care system is able to continue coping with the current surge of admissions, the best way to reduce the strain is for people to get vaccinated.
Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) Chief of Emergency Operations Dr. Derek Miller said ICU physicians in Saskatoon and Regina have identified patients that meet the criteria for safe transfer, and who are able to be cared for in Ontario.
The province is paying the cost of the transfer for the patient as well as one or two family members to and from Ontario. The cost is “significant,” said Miller, but is deemed necessary in order to ensure patients receive high quality care.
The province will provide ongoing updates on the numbers of patients transferred to other jurisdictions, said Miller. The locations in Ontario where the patients are being transferred to was not available due to privacy concerns.
Miller said there are currently 124 patients in ICU across the province as of Monday, October 18. The SHA had earlier set 116 ICU patients as a benchmark for moving patients out of province.
“That figure of 116 reflects an upper limit of our capacity,” said Miller. “It would still allow us to have the flexibility to meet any trauma situations that could suddenly boost that demand. Based on that, we are initiating out of province transfers in order to sustain the capacity we have achieved.
“This is very fluid. Our teams are under significant strain and have been working under those conditions for a number of weeks now.
“We are over 150 per cent occupancy at times and that is very stressful on our front line teams.”
Miller said the situation is due to a disease that is preventable with vaccination.
“It highlights the need for people to step up and get vaccinated so Saskatchewan can turn the corner on this,” he said.