The number of critical care beds available in Manitoba could be tripled if a surge of COVID-19 cases pushes capacity limits, health officials say.
The province shared details of their plans for expanding hospital capacity during the ongoing pandemic with media during a technical briefing Friday.
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The plan, which is broken down into three phases for differing caseloads, includes repurposing some existing hospital space for intensive care, bringing in students and retired staff to bolster the ranks and, if need be, securing space in large venues such as convention centres and moving some hospital patients there.
“In the event of an extreme surge, we have plans to establish a low-acuity overflow site — more than one if need be — that will provide space to care for patients who are in hospital but have low-acuity needs,” said Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer with Manitoba Shared Health at a press conference later in the day.
Under the plan, the province’s current 72 ICU bed capacity in Winnipeg and Brandon could be expanded to 245 by converting existing space in hospitals if needed.
Officials said they can also add slightly more than 1,000 regular hospital beds under the plan, which could see lower-acuity patients moved out of hospitals to “non-traditional” health-care areas including hotel rooms or convention centres to free up space.
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But they stressed moving patients to non-hospital spaces would be a last resort, and patients not requiring critical care will be kept as close to home as possible.
The plans, which have been in the works since COVID-19 first arrived in Manitoba in the spring, also revealed more details about the province’s current stockpile of supplies and equipment.
Health officials said Manitoba has a 90-day reserve of things like masks, gloves, and gowns plus a warehouse stocked with more supplies.
Siragusa said the medical equipment needed for expanded ICU capacity is also on standby.
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“We’ve nearly doubled our available ventilators and we have purchased other equipment that is required for this fight, including EKG monitors and infusion pumps and oxygen concentrators,” she said.
But as capacity grows, so will the need for staff and critical care nurses.
To meet those needs Siragusa said the province’s plan would see critical care nurses move into a team-based model, with support staff brought in to allow the nurses to move from caring for just one patient to many.
Under the plan, the province would find extra staff by moving current staff around, asking workers from other areas of health to help, calling on former and retired staff to return to work, and bringing in as many as 6,000 current medical students to help.
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As of Friday — when health officials announced 243 new cases and five additional deaths — Siragusa said ICU capacity across the province was at 94 per cent.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 continues to climb though, with provincial numbers showing 160 in hospital with the virus and 20 in intensive care as of Friday. The numbers have been steadily rising, and are up from the 153 in hospital and 16 in intensive care reported Thursday.
Manitoba had a single active COVID-19 case at one point in the summer, but numbers have since surged and the province now has the highest per-capita active case rate in the country.
Details of the province’s plans came just a few days after a group of doctors penned a letter to Premier Brian Pallister and Health Minister Cameron Friesen calling for tighter public health restrictions and warning the rise in cases is already overwhelming the province’s health-care system.
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As of Friday outbreaks have been declared at three of four hospitals in Winnipeg, including Victoria Hospital where 67 cases have been reported and five deaths.
The Manitoba Nurses Union said the government has been slow to prepare for a second wave of COVID-19, which experts knew would come.
“It illustrates that government and health officials are scrambling to put plans in place now, when our system is already stretched too thin,” union president Darlene Jackson said in a statement.
–With files from The Canadian Press
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
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