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COVID-19: Alberta MLA under fire for comments on AHS’ handling of pandemic

The MLA for Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland has come beneath hearth for feedback he made on Fb over the weekend.

As Alberta hospitals proceed to grapple with the fourth wave of COVID-19, Shane Getson wrote Saturday that somebody had tagged him in a 2016 information article detailing the salaries of high-profile Alberta Well being Providers staff.

Learn extra:
Lively COVID-19 instances in Alberta attain 21,307 Monday; ICU instances soar

“For this type of cash, and the quantity we pour into the system, I feel we must be getting extra bang for our buck in relation to useful resource planning,” the put up learn.

“ICU mattress ranges that have been accessible for the general public dropped unacceptably low coming into chilly and flu season and a prediction of the fourth wave. Therefore the ‘crunch, and pressure’ on the system. The wave hit, however AHS didn’t workers the beds adequately to fulfill their very own predictions?”

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Many health-care employees took to social media, annoyed with the UCP MLA’s feedback at a time when, in some areas, the health-care system is on the verge of collapsing because of the inflow of ICU sufferers.

“It’s with nice dismay, disappointment and indignation that we really feel we should reply to the statements made on Fb by MLA Getson,” a Monday letter from the Edmonton Zone Medical Workers Affiliation said.

“These statements, directed at Alberta Well being Providers CEO Dr. Verna Yiu can’t be left uncontested, for they show an abysmal lack of knowledge about our well being system and public well being.”

Learn extra:
Alberta docs plead with new well being minister for ‘hearth break’ lockdown amid 4th COVID-19 wave

The three-page letter additionally described the put up as a “private assault” on the president and CEO of AHS, and pointed to the “full lack of knowledge” about ICU capability and the way Alberta Well being directs AHS operations.

Additionally including their voice to the combo was Opposition Chief Rachel Notley.

“These feedback have been completely disgusting,” Notley stated at a Monday afternoon information convention.

“I’ll say that AHS has not let down Albertans — the UCP authorities has let down Albertans by way of their 18-month lengthy assault on AHS.

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“That they’d truly now attempt to shift blame to AHS is jaw-dropping to me.”

Questions round ICU mattress numbers

In one other Fb put up on Saturday, Getson claimed AHS was easy methods to make 1,000 ICU beds accessible earlier within the pandemic.

In his put up, he stated it’s a “good factor we now have the general public all up in arms preventing with one another over passports… in any other case they is perhaps asking what the heck has our $20-billion-plus-per-year AHS group been doing for ICU capability when the general public that pays for the system may have it!”

Learn extra:
‘We weren’t enthusiastic about different folks’: unvaccinated Alberta man on his time in ICU with COVID-19

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In a press release to World Information, AHS stated the “very preliminary” estimate that Alberta may have 1,000 ICU areas was made initially of the pandemic, in spring 2020, and was “primarily based on worst-case estimates of potential case numbers and disruption of the health-care system.”

The well being authority stated it has elevated hospital and ICU capability all through the pandemic, effectively above its baseline variety of beds. To this point, 197 further ICU surge areas have been added for a complete of 370 — that’s greater than double the everyday 173 beds, and greater than the second or third wave totals of 291 and 295 ICU areas respectively.

“ICU sufferers require highly-skilled, specialised physicians and nurses, and the extent of care is extraordinarily advanced,” AHS stated.

“Our capacity so as to add ICU capability has modified all through the pandemic, as we now have discovered extra about treating COVID-19 sufferers, and as we now have confronted more and more troublesome staffing challenges.”

 

World Information reached out to Getson for an interview on his Fb posts and the claims made in it, nevertheless, didn’t obtain a response.

— With recordsdata from World Information’ Tom Vernon




© 2021 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.

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