Health system ready if COVID cases spike: minister

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This article was published 15/03/2022 (1493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s health system is prepared to ramp up yet again should COVID-19 hospitalizations spike after public health measures were eliminated Tuesday, Health Minister Audrey Gordon promised.

A seven-page document detailing the province’s COVID-19 health system recovery plan was published by Shared Health on Tuesday.

“While Manitoba moves into the next phase of pandemic management, with recommendations replacing requirements and public health restrictions, it is anticipated that COVID-19 activity will increase and hospital admissions and ICU admissions may also rise,” the document states.

The plan says health system indicators, including surveillance testing, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions, are being “closely monitored to inform decisions in the event of a surge in COVID-19 activity.”

The plan supports the incremental expansion of the province’s critical-care bed base, prioritizes staff for redeployment, facilitates the addition of medicine beds and notes inter-regional patient transfers will continue to maximize capacity.

“This is for scaling up or scaling back,” Gordon told reporters when asked how the plan aligned with the government’s decision to lift all public health orders. “Right now, we continue to decommission beds, we continue to demobilize staff back to their home programs.

“We will continue in that downward trend for the foreseeable future so long as the numbers continue to support that. The plan does not call for Manitoba to return to its pre-pandemic intensive-care unit bed base.

Rather, the province will staff 87 adult ICU beds and 23 cardiac ICU beds, which is an increase of 18 beds. As many as 120 nurses will be able to complete critical care nursing orientation programs annually to support the expanded bed base, the plan notes.

Significant expansion of critical-care beds will continue to be supported by redeploying staff. A five- to seven-day lead time is required to expand the bed base by six to 10 beds.

“Each phase will redeploy or reassign staff from an identified area, resulting in a corresponding decrease to activity and services as workforce shifts occur,” the plan states. “Criteria have been clinically determined to establish appropriate prioritization and provincial standardization of services impacted and the sequence by which they are reduced.”

In a news release issued late Tuesday, Gordon said all but 235 staff had returned to regular duties as of March 10 and surgical capacity is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels within the next month.

The final phase towards returning to pre-pandemic surgical volumes will depend on “operational readiness and ongoing monitoring of health system indicators,” the plan states.

Inter-regional patient transfers will continue and may increase as weather improves to address congestion and free up beds at higher-acuity hospitals.

“Planning is actively underway to determine the post pandemic medicine bed map as well as to align medicine capacity with the newly expanded ICU bed base. Staffing and resource requirements are being identified with recruitment and training requirements a core component of this planning work,” the plan states.

NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said the plan shows the health care system does not have the capacity to provide timely care close to home as restrictions are lifted.

“That’s a direct result of cuts made before the pandemic, it’s a direct result of poor decision making by this government during the pandemic, including on going cuts,” Asagwara said. “A huge concern that I have is the ongoing crisis of staffing in our health care system, and how our health-care workers are going to be expected to continue to time and time again be working when they’re basically running on fumes.”

As of early Tuesday, 410 people with COVID-19 were in hospital, including 18 in intensive care.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca