LETHBRIDGE, AB – A so-called COVID Capacity Action Plan has been presented to the Alberta government by Lethbridge East MLA Nathan Neudorf.
He’s trying to find a way to take pressure off the local hospital here and family doctors, by having everything COVID related in one location.
Neudorf says a COVID Capacity Centre, as he refers to it as, would have everything from COVID-19 vaccinations to basic initial treatments.
“If you as a citizen go to the hospital where would you likely go first? Well, the atrium or emergency and that’s partly the problem, says Neudorf. “We want to divert those people somewhere else so that we limit the amount of spread, we get them the help they need, and it’s very specialized and targeted.”
Neudorf notes a location like Exhibition Park would be ideal for something such as this concept and points out that has already been a vaccination centre. “If we put it all into that one place then it might be just a pooling of resources without having to do multiple different sites. My intent is to move it away from the hospital to alleviate that concern.” Neudorf says he’s working on this with Health Minister Jason Copping.
Neudorf feels setting up something like this would not only ease the pressure off frontline workers in the emergency department at the hospital, but hopefully also ease the burdens on ICU.