Infectious disease, critical care doctors concerned about Oilers, Flames plans for start of season

With the province of Alberta struggling to keep up with the demand for healthcare during an outbreak of COVID-19, more than a dozen infectious disease and critical care doctors are urging the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers to drop plans to start the 2021-22 season with full attendance. Alberta has asked the federal government for help, declaring a state of health emergency, while patients flock to hospitals for care.

"Things are so desperate," Dr. Ilan Schwartz, an infectious disease doctor in Edmonton, said in an interview with TSN. "In all of Alberta we have 340 ICU beds. We are literally 10 patients away from having to start choosing who gets treatment and who does not."

Thousands of surgeries have been cancelled in Alberta to deal with COVID-19 patients. According to the province, the vast majority of those entering hospitals are unvaccinated.

"This is about to be a nightmare like we've never seen before," said Dr. Noel Gibney, an Edmonton critical-care doctor with four decades of experience working in ICUs. "We are now begging other provinces to start taking our ICU patients and we are days away from having to decide which patients will be taken off ventilators and given palliative care, basically oxygen and morphine, to make way for patients that have a better chance to live. It's jarring that we are asking other provinces to take our patients and at the same time having full hockey arenas that will lead to further spread of COVID-19."

In all, TSN interviewed 14 infectious disease and critical care doctors in Alberta about plans to allow full capacity at Rogers Place and Scotiabank Saddledome. All of them said now is not the time.

"It's reckless, and irresponsible for our province, as well as the Oilers and Flames, to be acting like nothing is going on, like our health-care system is normal," said said Dr. Shazma Mithani. "It's ridiculous you can go to an Oilers game and drink a beer shoulder-to-shoulder with someone else and yell when McDavid scores a goal, sending droplets everywhere, while our hospitals are bursting at the seams."

Both the Flames and Oilers insist their plans to open at full capacity are safe.

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