Photo: Shaun Penner / EverythingGP staff

By Shaun Penner

Increasing Bed Capacity

Elective surgeries to be postponed at QEII to create dedicated COVID unit: AHS

Aug 27, 2021 | 3:10 PM

Alberta Health Services says approximately 45 elective surgeries per week are set to be postponed at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie starting August 30 to increase bed capacity and create a dedicated COVID-19 unit.

AHS says this comes due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and “the increasing demand on hospital resources.”

The province’s health-care administrator describes this is a proactive measure, which mirrors other surgical postponements during other waves of COVID-19.

“These measures will help free up space in our hospitals for patients who need a higher level of care, and allow us to redeploy frontline staff and resources to areas of greatest need,” AHS says in a release Friday.

Similar redeploying of resources will be done in Edmonton hospitals, where up to 30 per cent of of non-urgent surgeries will be postponed starting Monday.

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EverythingGP has reached out to AHS for further details on the redeployment of resources, such as how many beds will be part of the dedicated COVID-19 unit at the QEII Hospital, and how many people are in hospital in Grande Prairie due to COVID-19.

In the North Zone, as of Wednesday night, there were 34 people in hospital due to COVID-19, while four were occupying an ICU space.

Both the City and County of Grande Prairie sit among the top 10 municipalities in Alberta for rates of active cases of COVID-19. As of Wednesday, there were 398 active cases in City and 185 in the County.

In Alberta, as of Wednesday, there were 308 people in hospital across Alberta due to COVID-19, with 64 of those people in intensive care.

Of those in intensive care, 56 were unvaccinated and another four were only partially vaccinated.

Both the City and County sit below the provincial average when it comes to rates of vaccination against COVID-19. Around 51 per cent of eligible City residents have been fully vaccinated, while just under 50 per cent of those eligible have been fully vaccinated in the County.

In all of Alberta, 69.2 per cent of eligible residents had been fully vaccinated.

“We strongly urge all eligible Albertans to get immunized as quickly as possible, and to continue following preventative measures such as staying home when sick,” adds AHS, in its release.