Transfer of ICU patients to Ontario about to slow down

The flow of intensive care patients from Saskatchewan to Ontario is expected to slow to a trickle after the weekend.

During a technical briefing Friday, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency president Marlo Pritchard said 22 ICU patients had been transferred to Ontario to receive care there. Two patients were to be sent east Friday, with two to go on each of the next two days as well.

After that …

“We have no plan past Sunday, but we will be monitoring it throughout the weekend and adjust as we have to,” said Pritchard, who noted a number of factors were at the root of the decision.

“Ontario had indicated earlier (that it had a) 30-bed limit for ICU support (for Saskatchewan patients). We are seeing a reduction in our COVID patients. We are seeing a reduction in the use of ICU beds. We’re monitoring it on a daily basis and we will transfer patients as needed to ensure that our patients do get the care that they need — if it’s required.”

As of Friday, there were 91 ICU patients in Saskatchewan hospitals, comprising 54 COVID patients and 37 who didn’t have COVID.

Saskatchewan started sending ICU patients to Ontario to ease the burden on the health-care system here. Now that hospitalizations and ICU admissions in this province are dropping, the number of transfers is dropping too.

Asked if the SPSA had a specific number in mind to decide when transfers would end, Pritchard said that depended on a number of factors such as the impacts on ICUs and surgeries and the availability of patients to move.

“Those conversations take place every day and we will monitor that and make adjustments as we need to moving forward,” Pritchard said. “But there is no specific number.”

As the SPSA prepared to send patients east, it also was preparing to get one back. Pritchard said one of the patients who previously was sent to Ontario was expected to return Friday.

Scott Livingstone, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said patients will be sent home when they no longer need ICU care.

“Once they are downgraded and moved to the ward in Ontario, the repatriation process starts with a target of a 24- to 48-hour turnaround to repatriate them to (Saskatchewan),” Livingstone said.

“They would still be admitted to hospital (in Saskatchewan) because they’re not finished their care, but they’re no longer requiring intensive care services.”

Military aid

Beleaguered health-care workers in Regina have been getting relief from members of the military — and more help is on the way.

Six critical-care nurses previously were sent to Saskatchewan to help and, on Friday, Pritchard said four general-duty nursing officers and four medical technicians from the military also have been deployed to Regina.

There were 65 people in Regina hospitals on Friday (including 14 in ICU) and 100 in Saskatoon (25 in ICU), but all of the military aid has been sent to the Queen City.

“After considering what resources were made available through the federal government, a decision was made to deploy them in Regina because that’s where we’re seeing some significant pressure,” Livingstone said.

The military staff are to help out in ICUs to give hospital staff a break, but also will work in a new COVID ward that has been set up.

Livingstone said the decision to deploy the military personnel in Regina also was made “to not take a finite but very welcome resource and split it up all over the province.”

Surgical backlog

The SHA has slowed down some of its services — including elective surgeries — to help with its COVID response.

On Friday, Livingstone said the SHA maintained a 50 per cent level of its elective surgeries and kept doing urgent three- and six-week operations throughout the pandemic. The recent downturn in COVID cases and ICU admissions as well as the patient transfers have allowed the authority to reschedule some surgeries that had been cancelled.

“Those folks that require an ICU bed post-surgery are starting to slowly receive that surgery within appropriate time frames,” Livingstone said, “and we will continue to look at that as one of our measures for COVID capacity moving forward.”