A spokesperson for Shared Health says they will need to start rescheduling some procedures in Manitoba in order to create more ICU beds.

Monika Warren is Provincial COVID-19 Operations Chief at Shared Health. She says as of midnight Friday, there were 86 patients in ICU, including 30 with COVID-19. Manitoba's normal pre-COVID-19 ICU baseline is 72.

"Over the past number of weeks we have been preparing for this increase in hospitalization by taking a very close look at our patient demand for our hospital beds and our available capacity," notes Warren.

In order to get to 110 beds in Manitoba, Warren says they are moving nurses from a number of health care facilities in our province to support Manitoba's sickest patients in ICU. This will impact a number of Manitobans with procedures scheduled beginning November 19th.

"This is a decision that is very firmly based in clinical assessment to ensure these transfers are safe and that our patients are able to have their ongoing care needs met at the receiving facility," notes Warren.

Warren stresses that patients whose procedures are being changed will receive a call from their doctor or surgeon's office. She notes operating room slates will continue through to November 18th, and patients who do not receive a call should proceed to their appointment as scheduled.

Warren says this change will impact:

two slates at the Pan Am,
two slates at Misericordia,
two slates at Victoria, and
endoscopy procedures completed at Seven Oaks Hospital.

In addition, Warren says approximately 40 nurses are set to complete their critical care orientation on November 22nd. However, she says they need to begin increasing capacity in the coming days as COVID-19 admissions are expected to continue to rise.

Warren says in the last week the number of patients in ICU has jumped by 25 per cent. There have been 15 COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU, including two on Thursday.

Overall, there are 145 patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Manitoba. Warren says this is up 27 patients, or nearly 23 per cent, from one week ago. Of those, 12 are under the age of 40, and three are under the age of 20.

Meanwhile, Warren says within the next week or so they will be announcing the surgical backlog and diagnostic backlog task force.