A West Kootenay doctor says the regional hospital in Trail is at risk of not having enough space to accommodate COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
Dr. Mike Vance works at Trailsa国际传媒檚 Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH), which has six ICU beds. Vance told the Nelson Star on Monday that four of those beds were currently being used by COVID-19 patients.
The danger, according to Vance, is that potential patients from the recent surge in regional cases have not yet started arriving at the hospital. Typically, COVID-19 patients who require oxygen only present themselves 10 to 14 days after they are first infected.
That means that those infected with COVID from the week of Aug. 1 to 7, which saw 74 new cases in Nelson, 30 in Castlegar, 11 in the Arrow Lakes area that includes Nakusp, 10 in Trail and four in Grand Forks, are only just beginning to feel symptoms that may lead to hospitalization.
sa国际传媒淭he next month right now is going to be a disaster,sa国际传媒� said Vance. sa国际传媒淚f you cansa国际传媒檛 bend that curve back down, this is going to continue with some major growth.sa国际传媒�
KBRH is the only hospital with an ICU and respiratory therapy in the Kootenay Boundary. Vance, who is working with admitted COVID-19 patients at the hospital who donsa国际传媒檛 require life support or ventilation, said the hospital is having to rearrange its ward to add more beds.
He is also concerned for people who donsa国际传媒檛 have COVID-19 but require a stay in the ICU for other medical reasons.
A person recovering from a heart attack, he said, may only need to be in the ICU for a few days. But COVID-19 patients are requiring longer stays on ventilators.
sa国际传媒淭heysa国际传媒檙e in there for weeks, especially now that wesa国际传媒檙e seeing these younger people. Theysa国际传媒檙e going to rally and theysa国际传媒檙e going to fight for longer. Theresa国际传媒檚 little chance for more patients in any capacity.sa国际传媒�
Vance said theresa国际传媒檚 a possibility COVID-19 patients will be sent to a hospital outside the region, but warned hospitals in the Okanagan are already at capacity.
Last week to support high numbers of COVID-19 patients, the majority, Interior Health said, were young adults who arensa国际传媒檛 fully vaccinated.
Interior Health meanwhile continues to lead the province in , the majority of which are in the Central Okanagan area which includes Kelowna.
This leaves few options for patients if the ICU at KBRH is full.
sa国际传媒淲hat I really want people to know is that we have six ICU beds, and we cansa国际传媒檛 handle this many cases,sa国际传媒� said Vance.
sa国际传媒淚f people cansa国际传媒檛 get vaccinated and start wearing masks and start socially distancing, locally itsa国际传媒檚 just going to be way too much for us. Itsa国际传媒檚 going to overwhelm our hospital system pretty quick.sa国际传媒�
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| tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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