Calgary’s Alberta Children’s Hospital to use heated trailer due to surge of patients

A crowded emergency department at Calgary’s Alberta Children’s Hospital is prompting Alberta Health Services (AHS) to bring in a heated trailer to accommodate a surge of patients.

AHS announced the move in a series of tweets Saturday and told CityNews that the trailer will be operational in early December.

“These measures are taken only as a last but necessary step to ensure we can continue to provide quality care to our patients,” AHS said in a statement.

The Alberta Children’s Hospital is adding additional waiting area space for periods when the ED is at capacity. A heated trailer, located beside the ED, will be operational in early December. 1/4

— Alberta Health Services (@AHS_media) November 27, 2022

AHS says the trailer will be used when the emergency department is at capacity and will be monitored in the same way as the waiting area inside the building.

“This additional space is a comfort measure to help with crowding and weather conditions and will not be used as a primary treatment area,” the statement read.

Read More: ‘Emergency provisions,’ staff redeployment being explored as patients surge at Alberta Children’s Hospital

Heather Smith, the president of the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), says the heated trailer is an example of the “incredible pressures that the system is under,” noting the surge of sick patients related to respiratory illnesses in the province.

“Capacity is a huge issue, right across the system,” Smith said. “When you have, as I understand as recently as this weekend, 81 patients in the emergency department, when you have 30 beds, there is no mystery to what kind of impact that has.”

Smith also says that the UNA has identified issues related to occupational health and safety with the trailer and concerns about “professional responsibility.”

“But I think that the Alberta Children’s Hospital is trying to make the best of a very acute and intolerable situation,” Smith said.

She adds an issue that nurses have brought up is the surge may discourage parents from taking their children to the emergency department at the hospital. She encourages parents to still take their children to the hospital.

“Bad publicity that paints a picture that people will not be supported should they go to the Children’s Hospital is the last outcome we want,” Smith said.

“Yes, we are having issues. The trailer is not the ideal solution. But please, if you have a sick child, don’t let that stop you.”

Health officials said earlier this month that in-patient units at both Alberta Children’s Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton were at or over 100 per cent of their normal capacity.

AHS also says the emergency department had been seeing more than 300 visits a day, compared to between 180 and 220 before the latest surge.

UNA president speaks with Alberta premier

The president of the UNA says she spoke with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in lieu of speaking with Minister of Health Jason Copping. Smith says she made the premier “very aware” of her concerns regarding volume and capacity when it comes to children.

“I indicated that capacity is another long-standing problem. The last new hospital in terms of not just replacing beds that were already there, but a new hospital was the south Health Campus,” Smith said.

“We do not have capacity across the system to deal with many of the volumes we have, and with respect to children in particular, at this point in time.”

She recommended the use of masks as a preventative measure for influenza for children to the premier.

“I know the premier doesn’t agree, but … the volumes and emergency are downstream, and there are some upstream protections that I believe should be encouraged in this province to help remove some of the risk from children and others, and that is masking,” Smith said.

“I mean, it’s not a good solution. It’s not something we would prescribe as a solution. But putting up a trailer is the best short-term solution as we face the weather we’re facing, and until we can deal with volumes,” Smith said.

School boards, meanwhile, have been asking for more direction as a slew of seasonal respiratory illnesses, along with some COVID-19 cases, have led to high classroom absentee rates and jammed children’s hospitals.

Premier Danielle Smith, however, said last week the province is done treating every respiratory season with extreme measures.

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Smith defended new rules banning mask mandates for students and ordering schools to provide in-person learning during the current wave of viral illnesses.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley responded to news of the trailer with a call for more resources and staff.

“This is a full-on crisis,” she said in a tweet.

The provincial government says there are around 1,100 people in hospital due to COVID, with 40 of those in the ICU. There have been 1,358 cases reported in the last seven days, and there are a total of 5,177 deaths due to COVID.

AHS says that the province has 550 people in the hospital due to influenza, and 52 of those are in the ICU. Of those hospitalized, 144 are children under the age of nine.

“No matter where patients are seen at the hospital site, they will always receive appropriate treatment. We’d like to thank the public for their patience and understanding as our staff work to see and treat patients as efficiently as possible,” reads a tweet from AHS posted on Saturday.

No matter where patients are seen at the hospital site, they will always receive appropriate treatment. We’d like to thank the public for their patience and understanding as our staff work to see and treat patients as efficiently as possible. 3/4

— Alberta Health Services (@AHS_media) November 27, 2022

-With files from Tiffany Goodwein