Photo by Curtis Galbraith

By Curtis Galbraith

COVID-19

STARS busier with respiratory disease patients

Nov 19, 2020 | 6:00 AM

STARS says it has been busier than usual moving patients with respiratory illnesses lately.

The air ambulances chief medical officer Dr. J-N Armstrong says these calls usually make up seven per cent of the volume for this time of year, but in the last month these calls have increased to 13 per cent, and were as high as 18 per cent last week alone.

He says some of these are what he calls “COVID suspect or COVID positive patients.”

“It’s hard to know at the time of transport. In fact, we usually have to wait for virology (tests) and so on. It’ll be some type of respiratory infectious illness. We’re not seeing that much typical influenza this season yet. So, there’ll be COVID-suspect, COVID-positive, probably patients with some other form of pneumonia that we’re transporting.”u

This is for all bases combined as local breakdowns are not available.

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Dr. Armstrong says these flights usually involved taking patients from rural areas to intensive care units in places like Grande Prairie, Edmonton, and Calgary.

He adds call volumes went down in March when everything was shut down but went back to normal in the summer when things opened up again.

Dr. Armstrong says they were prepared for this influx of calls.

“Back in the spring, in anticipation of the pandemic, we really did make every effort to ensure we had adequate amounts of personal protective equipment for our crews. This includes N95 masks, face shields, gowns, gloves and so on.”

Both medical crews and pilots get this equipment.

Dr. Armstrong adds the STARS team members and resources are holding up well, as crews are well trained and used to dealing with patients like these.

He says the fall surge of COVID-19 has been busier than the spring one.

“Not quite sure why other than the fact that we’re seeing it throughout our health care systems. Hospitalizations are up, ICU admissions are up. I think our experience just reflects the broader spread of COVID-19 this fall.”

Dr. Armstrong also says the overall call volume is about the same as usual, adding the Grande Prairie base also seems to be seeing usual call volumes and is transporting patients with respiratory diseases.