EAST CENTRAL— The Saskatchewan Health Authority is working to get on-site COVID-19 testing at East Central hospitals in the next two weeks.
“There is some work happening to try to get the capacity in some of our northern communities and that’s provincial and federal,” said Andrew McLetchie, vice president of Integrated Northern Health with the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
“In a week or two we’re hoping to have that sorted out.”
Hospitals across Saskatchewan are preparing for a situation where they’ll need 3,329 acute care beds province-wide, with 890 of those classified as intensive care, at the peak of the pandemic.
If the need arises, Humboldt, Tisdale and Porcupine Plain will be designated non-COVID-19 hospitals; Melfort, Nipawin and Prince Albert will be mixed hospitals; and Watrous, Wadena and Kelvington will be designated COVID-19 hospitals. The COVID-19 hospitals will have emergency services open to the public.
McLetchie said mixed hospitals were chosen to be mixed based on the size.
“The general rationale was a lot of our facilities were quite large,” McLetchie said. “In those facilities we’re able to separate patents and staff effectively to not create cross-contamination.”
Should local hospitals reach capacity, McLetchie said that patents will be transferred by ambulance to a separate hospital that is not at capacity.
The prioritization of which patents are moved first has not been established as of yet.
“We’re looking at the flow of patients and we’re trying to come up with determinations, pathways if you will, how those decisions are made and how we determine what resources patents need.”
