EDMONTON — Acute Care Alberta says hospitals across the province have returned to regular acute care operations on Sunday following a mass-casualty emergency response to a deadly training incident at CFB Wainwright.All Code Orange activations in Alberta have been stood down following a coordinated response involving health-care teams and emergency services from Alberta and Saskatchewan, the provincial agency said.The CFB Wainwright incident on Saturday killed four members of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and injured 39 other soldiers, including 19 in critical condition, during a training exercise at the military base. "Every single one of these patients will receive the absolute highest standard of care in the days and weeks and months ahead," Premier Danielle Smith said Sunday.A Code Orange activation indicates a mass-casualty incident and means affected facilities stop accepting patients as much as possible, diverting them to other facilities not affected by the order.Hospitals in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, along with a health-care facility in Wainwright, were affected by the order..Emergency Health Services Alberta deployed 30 units directly to Wainwright, including 22 ground ambulances, six fixed-wing aircraft and two rotary-wing aircraft.The response involved government-operated emergency medical services and contracted service partners in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Emergency operations continued for more than 10 hours, with injured patients transported to hospitals across Alberta."When crisis hit, Alberta's frontline heroes did not hesitate for a single second," Smith said Sunday."I want to express my deepest gratitude to our first responders, including firefighters in the MD of Wainwright, EMS crews, air ambulance teams, and frontline staff for the remarkable work over the last 24 hours.".As of Sunday, patients had been transferred from Wainwright Healthcare Centre to four facilities: the University of Alberta Hospital and Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, and Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.Despite the end of the emergency response, Acute Care Alberta warned that treating the injured soldiers would place additional pressure on a health-care system already facing high demand. However, the agency said capacity was available for those requiring emergency services."Our teams are coordinating across the different provincial health agencies, across the different hospitals, load levelling as needed to create additional capacity," Acute Care Alberta CEO Dr. Sayeh Zielke said Sunday."We have augmented staff to be able to provide that care as well, and then we're working with our neighbouring jurisdictions to make contingency plans if needed to be able to transfer patients accordingly.".The agency said the response demonstrated the dedication and professionalism of health-care workers and first responders who treated patients under difficult circumstances."I'm incredibly grateful for the teams in Edmonton, in Wainwright, in Calgary, in Red Deer that showed up, that rolled up their sleeves and started to provide care when they were not scheduled to provide that care," Zielke said."It was incredibly humbling to see the amazing response of our physicians, our allied care, our nurses that came to in an hour of the need to provide the care that was needed."
