Winnipeg hospitals may cancel elective surgeries if more flu cases confirmed

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ixDEGE4RPNcd4rxye9G5VnNeJcqg

Winnipeg hospitals may cancel elective surgeries if more flu cases confirmed

By THE CANADIAN PRESS ? 16 minutes ago

WINNIPEG ? The chief nursing officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says city hospitals may have to cancel elective surgeries if more flu cases turn up in Manitoba this weekend.

Jan Currie says the authority is closely watching to see if more people get sick and need to be hospitalized.

There are currently 119 cases of confirmed swine flu in the province.

About two dozen people with severe flu-like symptoms are being treated in intensive care.

About two-thirds of those are aboriginal.

 

[Quiplash]

Re: Winnipeg hospitals may cancel elective surgeries if more flu cases confirmed

Swine flu puts pressure on Manitoba health system

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2009/06/16/9810216-sun.html

By JASON HALSTEAD, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 16th June 2009, 1:48am



WINNIPEG -- As 33 new confirmed cases of the H1N1 influenza virus in Manitoba were announced yesterday, officials continued to work to manage stresses on the health system.

Last Wednesday the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority started moving elective surgeries from St. Boniface General Hospital to the Victoria General Hospital to allow extra staff for the intensive- care units treating patients with severe influenza.

"It's so we can free up staff in the recovery room area if the intensive-care nurses are not enough," said Jan Currie, chief nursing officer for the WRHA. "Staff at Victoria, because they have smaller numbers of influenza cases, aren't in that situation."

The new cases bring the total in the province to 152.

Manitoba's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Joel Kettner, said one to three new cases per day of serious influenza-like illness are requiring admission to hospital intensive-care units. He said suspected serious flu-like illness should be treated quickly.

"The key is feeling short of breath or out of breath," he said. "That is not typical with influenza, and people who have those symptoms should not hesitate to get prompt medical care. We're talking about people who become very ill very quickly, within the first 24 or 48 hours."

There are now 68 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Winnipeg, 57 in the Burntwood/Churchill RHA area, 12 in Northern Manitoba, seven in Brandon, three each in the Interlake and North Eastman, and one each in Parkland and South Eastman.

"We can't say where we're at for sure in this epidemic curve," said Kettner. "It looks as though we may be plateauing a little bit but I don't want to make any predictions yet."

 

[cartski]

Re: Winnipeg hospitals may cancel elective surgeries if more flu cases confirmed

Manitoba Center for Health Policy - report on bed capacity in Winnipeg, but quite dated - 1999:

http://mchp-appserv.cpe.umanitoba.ca/reference/seasonal_summ.pdf

Expected hospital capacity and needs:

http://mchp-appserv.cpe.umanitoba.ca/reference/hosp2020_summ.pdf

These are very well written summaries, and the other reports come from MCHP are excellent. MCHP has led the way in epi research in MB. They have preferential access to MB Health data, and have done tons of work on cleaning the database.

http://mchp-appserv.cpe.umanitoba.ca/deliverablesList.html

J.