Photo: Shaun Penner / EverythingGP

By Shane Clausing

more surgeries postponed

AHS postponing up to 60% of surgeries in North Zone to create additional ICU space

Sep 3, 2021 | 12:36 PM

Alberta Health Services has announced it will be delaying up to 60 per cent of expected surgeries in the North Zone next week to create additional ICU space, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb in the province.

As of September 1, there are 63 people in hospital in the North Zone, with eight people in the ICU with COVID-19.

This builds on AHS’ need to delay approximately 45 surgeries per week at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie as of August 30, in order to increase bed capacity and create a dedicated COVID-19 unit.

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

Earlier this week, AHS spoke to the media and said more surgeries were likely going to be delayed as COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated continued to rise.

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“We do expect that (the QEII hospital) are going to need to delay some further non-urgent elective surgeries this week and in the coming weeks, as we expect will probably be the case in other zones, to make sure we have those beds for patients that need them,” said Dr. Braden Manns with AHS on Wednesday.

Similar measures will be taken across Alberta, including:

• In Edmonton, postponements of scheduled surgeries and procedures will increase up to 50 per cent.
• The Central Zone will be postponing up to 40 per cent of endoscopy procedures and up to 30 per cent of scheduled surgeries.
• Calgary Zone and South Zone are postponing up to 30 per cent of scheduled surgeries, endoscopy and outpatient visits.

AHS says it will maintain urgent and emergent procedures, as well as prioritized cancer surgeries. They add they’re working to open and staff additional acute care and ICU beds across the province as fast as possible.

AHS is also asking all part-time and casual staff available to take extra shifts if they are available.

“We acknowledge that our frontline physicians and staff are tired after 19 months of pandemic response. We are extremely grateful for everything they have done for Albertans, and we regret asking them to go above and beyond again,” says AHS in a release.

In order to combat the spread of COVID-19, the province announced it will be instituting a mandatory mask bylaw, giving unvaccinated Albertans 100 as an incentive to get the shot and putting a curfew on liquor sales.

READ MORE: Mandatory masks indoors, $100 vaccine incentive among Alberta’s measures to curb COVID-19’s spread