Sask. COVID-19 patients could be transferred from hospitals in cities to rural areas – CBC
85 per cent of hospital beds in the province are occupied
Jan 27, 2022
More COVID-19 patients from hospitals in Saskatoon and Regina could be transferred to rural facilities to ease pressure on the healthcare system, the Saskatchewan government said, without providing details about when and where that could happen.
The practice of transferring patients to rural areas was done in the Delta wave, and one COVID-19 patient was moved from Saskatoon late last week.
Hospital beds in the province’s two main cities are full, while only about 70 per cent of beds in rural Saskatchewan are occupied, Health Minister Paul Merriman said at Monday’s COVID update. About 85 per cent of beds are occupied provincewide.
“It doesn’t make any sense for us to be in a position when we are over capacity in Saskatoon and Regina, yet there might be another hospital out in the system that isn’t at capacity,” he said.
Staffing levels in rural facilities are stretched, but “we need to be able to utilize those beds,” Merriman said, adding patients or their families would be told before a transfer takes place.
