Situation in Saskatoon hospitals 'grim,' says city's pandemic chief of staff

The state of the health system in Saskatoon is 'grim', according to the city's pandemic chief of staff for hospitals.

Dr. Mark Fenton, a respirologist who is also in charge of the province's lung transplant program, said we are getting closer and closer to health professionals having to decide which patients get admitted to ICU based on the likelihood of survival.

"That's a very difficult position for these [health-care] teams to be in," Fenton told Saskatoon Morning's Leisha Grebinski. "They're in the business of saving lives, not choosing between them."

Fenton said there are 44 patients in critical care.

"That represents about 162 per cent of our usual beds for ICU. So we're really stretched." 

Fenton said the high patient volume is already altering the care provided.

"A normal intensive care unit structure would be one-to-one nursing. And now nurses are having to look after two patients, for example," he said.

Skilled health professionals who can work in intensive care are also in short supply.

"I was in the ICU last week and the staff are just so stressed," Fenton said. "People are working almost continuously. Overtime is no longer something that you do for a little bit of extra money if it's available. It's now an active service to your peers to try to share the burden."

Community transmission is so prevalent that even those taking the strictest precautions, like the transplant patients he works with, are getting sick.

"Up until recently, you'd had very few transplant patients get sick with COVID because they're so careful. And now we're seeing that with much more frequency despite how careful they are," Fenton said.

"That's because we just don't have the controls in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. And by that, I mean public health orders."

Fenton said the province's decision to lift virtually all restrictions on July 11 and rely on encouraging people to get vaccinated has not worked.

"They're seeing the government say, 'Look, we're good. Let's get back to to business,' which I understand is what they wanted to do," he said.

"And at the same time, we're encouraging people to still be careful, but that's a secondary message, unfortunately."

He said the recent introduction of more restrictions, including mandatory masking and proof-of-vaccine certificates to enter some businesses, will help, but will not be a quick fix.

"We are probably going to be in the thick of this for the next few months. I think it will be sometime in 2022 before before this is settled, even if they lock things down today."

He said that if case numbers continue to rise, the province will need to start sending patients out of province.

Last week Fenton addressed city council and agreed with the city sending a letter to the province asking for Saskatoon to have special gathering limits to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"I think, you know, this province will look back at July 11 with a lot of regret," Fenton said.