Alberta’s emergency rooms are flooded with influenza patients.

Alberta’s hospitals are overflowing with flu patients at a time when they’re already stressed, and doctors are bracing for more as the worst of the respiratory virus season is yet to come.

“We’re being crushed everywhere. All emergency departments are being hit very hard,” said Dr. Paul Parks, chair-elect of the emergency medicine section of the Alberta Medical Association.

“This is only the beginning of it.”

Experts have been warning that this could happen a particularly bad influenza season,

The province’s respiratory virus dashboard shows hospitalizations are rising and, at 17.8 per cent, the flu positivity rate is higher than average for this time of year.

“This is putting tremendous strain on our hospital system,” Parks said.

As of November 29, 519 Albertans were hospitalized due to influenza. There were 31 admissions to the intensive care unit and 15 deaths.

“Across the province, Alberta Health Services (AHS) facilities are experiencing an increase in patient demand. This includes large numbers of patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs) and patients requiring hospitalization,” an AHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“Many of those patients are seeking care because of respiratory illnesses.”

At Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, Dr. Sidd Thakor is seeing children of all ages suffering from the flu.

“Certainly over the last few days we’ve seen those numbers increase substantially.”

According to Thakor, they added additional staff early on, including more physicians and are double bunking patients in rooms designed for one child.

“We have twice as many rooms being filled with patients, and we’re being asked to discharge patients as quickly as possible. We’re starting to see some of those pressures now.”

Thakor said that cases of RSV are still being reported.

hospital capacity issues

According to Parks, the surge is particularly worrisome because it comes at a time when hospitals are already stretched to their limits due to a variety of factors, including population growth, ongoing government efforts. health system restructuring And low vaccination rates,

“All 16 of our major, larger hospitals are over capacity,” said Parks, an ER physician in Medicine Hat.

“I just can’t take that much stress — it’s too difficult. We’re going into our highest volume season and every one of our (major) emergency departments has inpatients who can’t be admitted to the hospital because there are no beds.”

Parks said he’s also seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases at the hospital.

We are reaping what the government has sown.– Dr. Paul Parks, Alberta Medical Association.

He said patients with respiratory viruses take up beds that are needed by surgery patients or those who need cancer treatment, for example, which can lead to delays in other care.

Park blames the provincial government for “failure” to promote public health and vaccinations.

decline in vaccination rates

Vaccination rates for influenza and COVID have been falling in recent years, and the provincial government has been widely criticized by doctors and scientists for its decision to charge many Albertans for a COVID vaccine this year.

The fall vaccination campaign was confusing for many struggled to get appointments Right from the beginning.

And the province remains without permanent chief medical officer of health Who, in the past, often spoke publicly about communicable diseases and promoted vaccination.

Provincial data shows 16.2 per cent of Albertans have received a flu vaccine so far this season, and 6.1 per cent have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

“We are reaping what the government sowed,” Parks said.

CBC News contacted the Ministry of Primary and Preventive Health Services and the Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services for comment, but did not receive a response before publication time.

For its part, AHS said it is working to address demand by implementing its over-capacity and surge plans.

“These plans include increasing dedicated inpatient units and using more capacity beds, discharging appropriate patients early with better home support, increasing staffing, managing surgery patients at home instead of in a hospital bed, and working to return patients who do not need specialized care to other health care facilities when medically appropriate,” an AHS statement said.

AHS also said it added 336 temporary beds during the 2024-25 respiratory virus season, including inpatient beds and emergency department space.

This year, 206 of them have been put into year-round operation. They are all in use. The remaining 130 are to be used temporarily during the respiratory virus season. All but seven of them have been opened.

“We will continue to open locations as staffing and resources allow,” AHS said.

those at greater risk

Meanwhile, Thakor said it’s not too late to get a flu vaccine and he’s urging people to stay home if they’re sick and stay away from vulnerable Albertans.

In addition to older Albertans, children under the age of five are at higher risk of complications from influenza.

Older children, including teens with asthma, heart problems or immune deficiencies, can also become very sick, Thakor said.

And they warned that although it is rare, influenza can cause serious complications, including severe brain swelling, called encephalitis.