Murray Wood: Of Easter bunny bells and Juicy Fruit gum
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The COVID-19 finish line cannot come soon enough for Saskatchewan’s frontline health-care workers, many of whom are just trying to keep up with rising case numbers and hospitalizations.
As of Tuesday morning, there were 143 people in hospital in the province, with 26 patients in intensive care.
“We have the equivalent of an additional whole medical ward in Regina, two medical wards in Saskatoon and one also in (Prince Albert), in addition to the usual people that we provide care to,” said Dr. Susan Shaw, chief medical officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
Speaking to Gormley on Tuesday morning, Shaw said this has put workers under a great deal of stress, needing to work overtime and pick up extra shifts.
As a critical care physician working shifts in the intensive care unit, Shaw sees it firsthand.
“It’s a very different environment. I’m very proud of how our teams are doing but I see it in their eyes and I talk with them. I go and I work in the ICU on a fairly regular basis. I think people are getting pretty tired,” she said.
Working conditions are also in flux, which Shaw said creates additional stress.
At Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital, the ICU has been relocated from the ground floor to the second floor, where there would be more space to accommodate COVID-19 patients.
Under the SHA’s surge plan, about 600 workers would be redeployed to shore up the COVID response.
Services such as primary care, elective surgeries in urban centres and diagnostics will be reduced.
The health authority’s intent is to avoid slowing down services across the system in favour of a “targeted approach” that would minimize the impact on patients.
But that doesn’t make it an easy choice.
“Those are such difficult decisions and deliberations that teams have had to make,” Shaw said.
“But I think it’s the right thing to do, to make sure that the people who need care the most – the critically ill, the people who need to be admitted to hospital because of COVID – have the safe care that they require.”
