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That’s the way it seems at Alberta Health Services in the early days of what everyone hopes is the post-pandemic era.
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The system is groaning under some shortages, the Opposition claims that it’s virtually collapsing, and a civil war is budding with nurses and other professionals who face pay cuts.
The NDP claims that virtually every bed closure or staff shortage is the government’s fault.
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But the United Nurses of Alberta and the Opposition NDP says that data doesn’t match the reality on the ground.
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Deb Gordon, the chief operating officer for AHS, said Friday that more than 98 per cent of beds in acute and emergency care are available provincewide.
Gordon says there are only two locations Fort Vermilion and Elk Point where emergency services have closed and forced patients to be sent elsewhere at certain times.
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At a Friday news conference, Deb Gordon, the provincial health authority’s vice president and chief operating officer, said temporary bed closures are not uncommon for AHS or any other health system across Canada, and that one closure has only a “limited impact” on patients because there are enough beds to address the need.
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According to AHS, 125 acute care beds are currently closed across the province approximately 1.5 per cent of the province’s beds.
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The comments from AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu come as Alberta logs 100 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and 173 new cases Friday the highest single-day counts in a month. Despite the jump, hospitalization and death rates from COVID-19 have not increased.
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“Any time that cases go up, I would say my heart rate also goes up, because we’ve been through three waves and they’ve not been easy times,” Yiu said Friday morning at an unrelated press conference.
EDMONTON After dozens of hospitals in Alberta have faced staffing shortages that created reduced service levels or temporary closures, health officials will provide an update about Alberta Health Services (AHS) emergency capacity. In a media release sent Thursday evening, AHS says it will provide an update on acute care and emergency department capacities at facilities across the province. The update is scheduled for Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. Dr. Verna Yiu, AHS president and CEO, and Deb Gordon, AHS vice president and chief operating officer, are expected to provide the update. At least 20 AHS hospitals and care centres – including McLennan, Fairview, Rocky Mountain House, Consort, and Elk Point – have been forced to reduce service levels since Jan. 1.