Alberta health officials are in the planning stages of potentially housing coronavirus sufferers in hotels..Alberta Health Services Mark Joffe said Wednesday the “entire community will be part of this response.”.He said AHS officials “have been feverishly working for a number of weeks” to maximize the use of hospital beds across the province..Joffe said Alberta has about 8,500 hospital beds and 2,250 will be needed for coronavirus patients..He said space will be opened by using shuttered wards, cancelling elective surgery and triple-bunking patients where there are now two to a room..But that may not be enough and thats where the hotel plan comes in..The Western Standard learned of the hotel plan earlier this week but when health officials were contacted they denied knowledge..Joffe said seriously ill patients wouldn’t be housed in hotels, rather it would be used for recovering patients who can’t return home for a variety of reason – like they could pass it on to numerous relatives..“We are going to need to find space for these individuals to recover,” said Joffe, adding hotels are being looked at in those cases..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter: @Nobby7694
Alberta health officials are in the planning stages of potentially housing coronavirus sufferers in hotels..Alberta Health Services Mark Joffe said Wednesday the “entire community will be part of this response.”.He said AHS officials “have been feverishly working for a number of weeks” to maximize the use of hospital beds across the province..Joffe said Alberta has about 8,500 hospital beds and 2,250 will be needed for coronavirus patients..He said space will be opened by using shuttered wards, cancelling elective surgery and triple-bunking patients where there are now two to a room..But that may not be enough and thats where the hotel plan comes in..The Western Standard learned of the hotel plan earlier this week but when health officials were contacted they denied knowledge..Joffe said seriously ill patients wouldn’t be housed in hotels, rather it would be used for recovering patients who can’t return home for a variety of reason – like they could pass it on to numerous relatives..“We are going to need to find space for these individuals to recover,” said Joffe, adding hotels are being looked at in those cases..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter: @Nobby7694
