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By Caden Fanshaw

COVID-19

‘All of our beds are occupied’: Capacity crunch continues at UHNBC

Oct 13, 2021 | 5:14 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – With COVID-19 cases surging in Northern Health higher than they have in any other wave of the pandemic, the situation at the University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) are not good.

Capacity at the hospital has been stretched throughout the pandemic, although according to Dr. Firas Mansour, Medical Director at UHNBC the past few weeks have been some of the toughest.

“All our beds are occupied,” says Dr. Mansour. “You plan for a surge, and that’s something we’ve done multiple times in the past, you always expect certain thresholds on capacity, but we’ve clearly reached our maximum capacity with added surge.”

During the winter last year when cases in Fort St. James and area were surging hospitalizations in Northern Health peaked around 40. Now into the 4th wave and the pandemic of the unvaccinated the scenario is dire, 84 people on Wednesday afternoon were hospitalized here in Northern Health, 22 in ICU.

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That total doesn’t count the 55 ICU patients and counting that have been transported elsewhere in BC for care.

According to Dr. Mansour, the most frustrating part is at least some of the cases in hospital right now were preventable with vaccinations.

Recent numbers show Unvaccinated people are more than 50 times more likely to end up in hospital than those fully vaccinated.