Federal support to help Saskatchewan cope with the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is on its way.
Six highly-trained critical care nurses will begin working in Saskatchewan Intensive Care Units (ICUs) this Wednesday, October 27; providing much-needed relief for overworked front-line staff, according to Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) CEO Scott Livingstone.
While the six critical care nurses will help maintain Saskatchewan’s ICU capacity at its current level, it won’t allow the province to get back to normal levels of service. Many surgeries had to be cancelled or postponed because of the influx of COVID-19 patients in ICUs.
In addition to the half-dozen critical care nurses, the federal government is providing up to 20 Canadian Red Cross nurses to assist in non-critical care areas, as well as a medical transport plane to transfer ICU patients.
During a conference call October 25 with reporters, Livingstone said the first flight on the medical transport plane provided by the federal government is scheduled to take place Tuesday, October 26.
Saskatchewan is expected to transfer three ICU patients on October 25 and another four on October 26 to Ontario.
Saskatchewan Public Health Agency head Marlo Pritchard said the province had requested additional support from the federal government, but the resources are simply not available at this time.
“In my conversation two weeks ago with the federal government, they indicated that resources were not great,” said Pritchard. “They were going to do what they could to support us, but there are not a lot of specialized critical care nurses available to work in ICUs. There are not a lot available across Canada to support that surge in COVID-19 cases that we’re seeing.”
The province is expecting to see additional critical care nurses join the front lines once graduates from training programs take up positions in hospitals beginning in November and December of this year.
Nurses who normally work in other areas are also being trained to help support ICU nurses.
““Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been up-scaling nurses from across the SHA,” said Livingstone. “It’s not a typical ICU training course. It’s short but it does get acute care nurses to support care in ICUs. They’re to be used as ‘extenders’ to support staff in ICUs across the province.
“At the same time, we’re working with our partners to train more critical care nurses in the next few months.”
Livingstone said the SHA has also introduced monoclonal antibody treatments for unvaccinated COVID-19 patients in an effort to reduce the number of people ending up in hospitals and ICUs.
The province has been allocated 1200 doses of monoclonal antibodies, and so far has received 476 doses. Those will be dispensed in clinics in Regina and Saskatoon.
Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s Chief Medical Officer, said people should not view the monoclonal antibody treatments as an alternative to vaccines.
‘Vaccines are 95 per cent effective in reducing serious hospitalizations and deaths,” said Shahab.
“To use an analogy, if you’re driving on an icy road, wearing a seat belt reduces your risk.
“Think of COVID transmission as an icy road, and vaccination is your seat belt. It reduces the risk, but seat belts only work if you have them on.
“The monoclonal antibody treatment is like an ambulance that may or may not arrive in time.
“So just because you may have an ambulance doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your seat belt.”