Alberta nurses concerned over hospital capacity, staffing levels

Nurses are sounding alarms as some hospitals are over capacity while some others are near capacity, but the health ministry says the numbers aren’t abnormal.

Alberta’s Health Minister Jason Copping says the government will spend $300 million over the next three years to add more intensive care beds in hospitals.

Adding $100 million of that will be spent this year to create 50 permanent ICU beds across the province.

Copping says the COVID-19 crisis, which overwhelmed existing intensive care units, highlighted the need to add more beds quickly.


Related Article: Alberta to keep a close eye on arising COVID-19 BA.2 variant


The Health Minister says some Calgary and Edmonton area hospitals may be over-capacity but overall, the province is below the standard baseline.

“We’re sitting at roughly 90 to 93 per cent of the total occupancy,” he explained.

“Certain areas like in Edmonton and Calgary, or certain hospitals, are running over a hundred per cent, but if you look back over historic periods of time that’s not abnormal for this time of year, and in certain cases, we’ve run higher than that.”


Related Article: Alberta healthcare professionals are relocating from the province rapidly


But the United Nurses of Alberta says capacity doesn’t matter.

“Beds are meaningless, they’re a piece of furniture unless you have staff to provide care and support those who provide care,” said Heather Smith, president of United Nurses Alberta.

“It’s not just about bed numbers and capacity, it’s about resources to safely staff [them].”

Copping responded to Smith’s comments by saying, “Heather is quite right, it’s not just about the beds.

“We have been increasing [staff levels], so, we’ve hired more nurses and we have more nurses in the system than ever right now,” he added.

“Part of budget 2022, the additional 600-million included a hundred million for additional ICU beds and the staff to go with it from a funding standpoint.”


Related Article: Pandemic underscores value of culturally sensitive Indigenous health care, say experts


Despite that, Smith believes recruitment is lacking.

“We don’t have the personnel, we’re not doing anything really to recruit in a meaningful way, and we certainly have done our best in many locations to not retain staff.

So, yeah, it’s an issue, a huge issue,” she said.

When asked how to resolve the problem, she responded, “First thing you do is you stop insulting [healthcare workers], and you actually have meaningful efforts around retaining them in the workplace, and you should be actively recruiting.”


Related Article: Alberta drug overdoses increasing in shelters, addiction centres: health workers


Copping adds that the number of nurses has increased by over 1,800, while this year’s budget has 2,800 more full-time equivalencies compared to last year’s budget.

“So, we are actively training, actively recruiting staff because we fully appreciate it’s not just about the beds, it’s about the people being able to staff those beds.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today