Canada: Alberta healthcare system on verge of collapse as Covid cases and anti-vax sentiments rise

[Eugene]

Also: Alberta doctors warn health care system on verge of collapse (CTV News)

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Source: The Guardian

Canada: Alberta healthcare system on verge of collapse as Covid cases and anti-vax sentiments rise

A province that has long boasted of its loose coronavirus restrictions has also been the site of North America’s highest caseloads

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Wed 15 Sep 2021 11.30 BST

A surge in coronavirus cases has pushed the healthcare system in the Canadian province of Alberta to the verge of collapse, as healthcare workers struggle against mounting exhaustion and a growing anti-vaccine movement in the region.

The province warned this week that its ICU capacity was strained, with more people requiring intensive care than any other point during the pandemic – nearly all of them unvaccinated.

“It’s not easy to go to work every day and watch people in their 30s die,” an ICU nurse in Edmonton told the Guardian. “Having to help a family say goodbye and then going through the actions that are required at the end of someone’s life, is worse than anyone can imagine.”

Alberta has long boasted of its loose coronavirus restrictions – including advertising the previous months as the “best summer ever” as it rolled back those few restrictions. It has also been the site of North America’s highest caseloads.

In a province with a long history of skepticism towards government, the pandemic has become fertile ground for protests and anti-vaccine rhetoric, including from elected officials, firefighters and police officers. During the ongoing federal election, the People’s Party of Canada, a fringe rightwing party that has come out against public health measures has seen its largest support base in rural Alberta.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/15/canada-alberta-healthcare-system-covid-cases-rise

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Source: CTV News

Alberta doctors warn health care system on verge of collapse

Bill Macfarlane
CTV News Calgary Video Journalist

Updated Sept. 14, 2021 10:12 p.m. EDT
Published Sept. 13, 2021 10:31 p.m. EDT

CALGARY - A group of Alberta doctors are warning the health care system in the province could collapse under the weight of surging COVID hospitalizations by early October unless the province takes decisive action.

"It will not be able to handle people who come in with complications from their pregnancy, or who've been in more vehicle collisions, or who need life saving cancer surgery," said Dr. James Talbot, one of the authors of the warning.

He said in addition to hundreds of cancelled surgeries due to staffing shortages, the medical system is preparing to start using a triage protocol for patients, in other words deciding who will get the increasingly limited resources available.

"Plan for a situation in which you would not have enough beds for everyone. And that's what the triage protocol is. It's about who lives and who dies,” Talbot, a former Alberta chief medical officer of health said.

He said the dire projections do not take into account accelerated spread caused by the return to school or increased indoor gatherings with the coming cooler weather.

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Read more: https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-doctors-warn-health-care-system-on-verge-of-collapse-1.5584326

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Alberta is lead by a Conservative government which is very weak on mandates; opened up way too soon

[AZ8theist]

2. Do stupid things...

Win stupid prizes.
I will never understand the desire to die to prove their anti-science ignorance.

[pandr32]

3. Alberta is increasingly right wing

[Bev54]

4. I live in Calgary Alberta and our Premier Jason Kenny is Ron DeSantis of the North

He opened up the province in July but kept in place mask mandates for transit. I worked at the Calgary Stampede right after he opened it up and 90-95% of the people did not wear masks. All employees wore masks and I am fully vaccinated. I have worked a number of events over the past few months, all of which I am fully masked but most people are not, football games, raves etc. There are too many idiots out there that have spoiled it for us doing the right thing. What the hell did they think was going to happen, we (vaccinated) all knew what was going to happen. I always wear my mask indoors but most do not anymore. There is talk of going into another lock down, which did not have to happen because the rest of the country is managing the virus with much better results, except Sask, which is like Alabama of the North.