Alberta health-care providers face growing mental health toll as ICUs pushed to breaking point
CBC
With no end in sight to Alberta's unrelenting fourth wave of COVID-19, health-care providers are bracing themselves for even more heartbreaking scenes in the weeks to come.
Nurses and doctors — already exhausted and traumatized — say they're gutted that Premier Jason Kenney didn't announce further public health restrictions on Tuesday to relieve the mounting pressure in hospitals, despite growing and desperate pleas for a so-called "firebreak" lockdown.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,100 Albertans were being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, including 263 in intensive care units. Alberta ICUs have ballooned to 184 per cent of their normal capacity. When factoring in extra surge beds added, capacity is at 86 per cent.
"It's heartbreaking," said Keri Price, a Calgary pediatric ICU nurse at Alberta Children's Hospital who was redeployed to care for critically ill adult patients.
"It's really sad to see all these patients with no families by their side. And alone. And dying alone."
These traumatic scenes are now routine in Alberta hospitals.
"It felt like a war zone," said Edmonton emergency room physician Dr. Shazma Mithani, who worked a shift in the ICU this week as part of her regular rotation.