Health Minister Adriana LaGrange would airlift sick babies if need be

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Stark information that there might be no room at the hospital for Alberta’s tiniest patients struck a chord of outrage outside the legislature Tuesday.

“There’s nothing more distressing than having a child or having a baby that needs to be in NICU,” said Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, who hours earlier received a letter of protest from Edmonton Zone medical leaders detailing worrisome stressors on the province’s neonatal intensive care units.

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LaGrange said her department and Alberta Health Services were providing her a full briefing and options as quickly as possible.

“At the end of the day, my priority is to make sure these babies and their families are looked after. And so if we need to airlift them to Calgary or to other provinces, I’ll do whatever it takes,” she said.

“I’ve announced a standalone Stollery, and we’re looking to expand space at the Foothills, that’s already in process,” she said.

Neonatologist Dr. Amber Reichert co-signed a letter signed by Dr. Mona Gill, president of the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association.

Addressed to LaGrange and Athana Mentzelopoulos, president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, the letter cited grim numbers.

The Edmonton units have been frequently working at between 95 per cent and 102 per cent capacity for 30 per cent of the time in the first three months of 2024.

A safe occupancy level for a NICU is 75 per cent. Alberta’s NICUs have been averaging 90 per cent over the last three years but for more than one-quarter of the time they’re at capacity — or over capacity.

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“Leading up to April the capacity was nearing 100 per cent. Although many sectors of the health care system work well above 100 per cent, in the NICU in particular, bed closures really do impact babies,” Gill told Postmedia Tuesday.

In 2016, studies showed 20 to 30 additional NICU beds were needed. The timing was perfect for the planned south Edmonton hospital, with 21 new NICU beds expected.

In 2022 and again in 2023, briefing notes were submitted to Alberta Health sounding the alarm for urgently needed beds, staffing, transport teams, and pediatrics/neonatology teams.

“These have largely been ignored,” Gill said.

“Lack for Tier 1 support — health care providers giving overnight coverage in hospitals — is an issue across the zone and we feel that AHS and Covenant Health need to be held accountable for the crisis.”

Reichert said Tuesday there are NICU beds and equipment in the Edmonton zone that are ready to go — but they’re not staffed.

“My personal view with regards to airlifting babies/families — it would be a very expensive short-term Band-Aid that will not address the much deeper problems,” Reichert said.

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“Our government was supposed to support a south Edmonton hospital in which there would be 21 additional NICU beds. That project has been put on hold (in spite of a huge financial investment already spent from taxpayer dollars) with no clear plan as to how to address the immediate capacity crisis,” she said.

Distributing human resources equitably through the NICUs in the Edmonton Zone is difficult because three fall within Alberta Health Services and two within Covenant Health, she said.

“Neonatologists work as a group to cover all of the NICUs but we can’t provide effective, safe care without a team that includes bedside and charge nurses, dietitians, respiratory therapists and Tier 1 providers, like neonatal nurse practitioners and clinical assistants, along with our specialist trainee physicians.”

Reichert said neonatal intensive care has a bit of an edge because they can anticipate the number of admissions they’ll get based on delivery numbers at a given site.

“We have to have manpower to look after the admitted babies, but also to manage resuscitation and support of newborns that present every day. Statistics show that one in 10 babies require some form of help to transition to ‘extra-uterine life,’” she said.

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The outgoing leader of the Opposition NDP had sharp words for the UCP government.

“Suggesting that infants be flown out of province to receive the care they need is a declaration of failure by this UCP government,” said Rachel Notley.

“Danielle Smith should be focused on doing what is necessary to recruit and retain critical frontline workers rather than nickel and diming them at the bargaining table and then writing press releases slandering them after the fact. This is not the way to ensure we have the health-care workers that we need,” she said.

”She needs to reverse her decision to cancel the new hospital in south Edmonton that would have added new NICU beds in addition to a new Stollery, just to bring us to the minimum capacity that we need for a young and expanding population. This is the most important job that the premier has, but instead she spends her time whining about the prime minister’s jurisdiction. Danielle Smith needs to understand this situation as the emergency that it is.”

A statement from Alberta Health Services Tuesday afternoon said “AHS has NICU capacity across the province, and our frontline teams continue to provide patients with the very best care possible.

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“Every child that needs intensive care will continue to receive it,” said AHS spokesman Kerry Williamson.

“AHS continues to experience significant patient demand in our major urban centres, including demand for neonatal intensive care unit services. However, capacity exists across the system.

“Occupancy fluctuates between 90 and slightly above 100 per cent, but again, we have capacity,” Williamson said, citing 40 available beds around the province as of noon Tuesday.

“During periods of high patient volume our teams work closely with colleagues in other zones and, if required, children needing NICU care can be transferred to other sites.”

The sight of a 13-week premature baby in a glass cradle, their fragile body swathed in tubes and tape — not even developed enough for cartilage in nose or ears — can be terrifying.

The idea that there might be no room in the hospital is beyond comprehension, Notley said.

“My heart goes out to the families of kids in the NICU who should be celebrating the birth of their child, but who are instead dealing with nightmares. Being told that the care their little one needs is not available in Alberta only adds to their tragedy.”

jcarmichael@postmedia.com

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