Photo: Government of Alberta

By Shane Clausing

COVID-19

Alberta, AHS announces plans to battle Omicron COVID-19 peak

Jan 20, 2022 | 4:38 PM

Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the Government of Alberta has announced plans to help battle the peak of the Omicron COVID-19 wave.

As of January 19, there were 1,131 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19. Hospitalizations in the province have risen sharply over the last week and 1,131 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19 is the most at any point since the pandemic began in March 2020.

“The recent surges in hospital and ICU cases, coupled with the fact that we are seeing more of our own health-care workers become sick or have to isolate, means that our health-care system is facing yet another serious challenge,” said AHS Presidents and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu.

“I remain grateful to our incredible teams who continue to provide quality care so that we can meet this challenge.”

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The province will allocate existing beds for COVID-19 care while additional beds will be opened at the Kaye Edmonton Clinic (KEC) in Edmonton and South Health Campus (SHC) in Calgary starting on January 24.

The beds will open for use as needed to create additional capacity, but will mainly be used for patients recovering from COVID-19 and those deemed to be at low risk of transmitting the virus or patients with less complex health-care needs.

Community Response Plan

AHS says it is working closely with Primary Care Networks to provide community resources for those managing their illness at home.

AHS and PCN partners have opened or are planning virtual call-in lines or COVID-19 in select communities that will be available to screen, assess and appropriately direct people with mild and moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

Maximizing availability of workforce to support patient care

Because of so many patients winding up in hospital, the province is implementing an alternate team-based care models are being implemented across the province as necessary.

This means that instead of individual health-care providers caring for a smaller number of patients, a team that has a complete skill set and relevant experience collectively cares for a larger group of patients.

A total of 610 nursing students have joined the AHS team and will work and get educational credit for assisting through this wave.

More to come…..