An Alberta emergency room doctor has sent an open invite to Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Jason Copping: Come visit our ICUs for a first-hand look at the front lines of the battle against COVID-19..“We’ve been told, through the endless months of this relentless pandemic, to keep our distance to stay safe. From the outside, where life almost feels normal, it is understandable to want to keep your distance from the unfathomable horrors we face in the hospitals every day,” said the letter, signed by Dr. Paul Parks, head of emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association..“To break the disconnect, we urgently need you to see what we are experiencing. We would like to formally invite you to come visit an Edmonton ICU as soon as possible to see it for yourselves.”.The province has been battered with the Delta variant of the virus since the start of September and has seen hospital ICUs filled to overflowing and climbing death tolls..Parks told Kenney space is only being found in some ICUs because other patients are dying in such large numbers..And, he added, it’s taking a heavy toll on health care workers..“Even as we create more unconventional beds, we cannot create an endless ability for our health care workers to carry this impossible burden. We will be paying the price of this physical and moral suffering for years to come,” Parks wrote..“Unfortunately, we will see the immediate consequences in the days and weeks to come, with staff simply unable to maintain the standard of care necessary to keep such gravely ill patients alive. Health care workers are doing all they can with every fibre of their being, but human capacity is not an infinitely renewable resource.”.“Alberta is at the edge of a precipice, but it is a precipice that right now only we can see. Please let us show it to you.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
