Alberta government releases third party review of its COVID-19 first wave response

Health Minister Tyler Shandro, left, Premier Jason Kenney, and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

EDMONTON -

The long-awaited review of Alberta’s first wave response tabled five recommendations to strengthen the province's response to future waves of COVID-19 and other pandemics.

From provincial communication strategies, economic supports offered by Alberta, and health care staffing shortages, the third-party report evaluating Alberta’s response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was released Friday afternoon.

The external report was developed by accounting firm KPMG, who was awarded a $475,000-contract to complete the work. It analyzed the province’s response to the pandemic from March 2020 through to Oct. 12, 2020.

It was submitted to the province in January 2021 and released to the public a year later “in the interest of full transparency,” Health Minister Tyler Shandro said on Tuesday.

The report tabled five recommendations for the province, including that once vaccine administration is “well underway” and the health emergency concluded that Alberta undertakes a full comprehensive review to ensure future pandemic responses are strengthened.

Additionally, the report said the province should conduct further stakeholder analysis to help gauge support of decision making as well as to “strengthen” the pandemic response.

CENTRALIZED STRUCTURE AIDED ALBERTA’S PANDEMIC RESPONSE

According to the third-party review, the unique structure of Alberta Health Services (AHS) as the province’s health authority provided “structural advantages” during the first wave.

AHS is the largest single health authority in Canada, the report read. This allowed it better opportunities for cohesive data collection, easing patient flow and hospital capacities by discharging other patients to different facilities like long term care centres, and enabled “significant purchasing power” for personal protective equipment.

Non-urgent and elective surgeries were postponed across Canada as the health care system readied to respond to COVID-19 patients in the first wave. According to the KPMG report, the amount of surgeries performed in Alberta declined by 30 per cent – similar to other jurisdictions in Canada. Alberta managed to clear that backlog faster than other provinces the report said.

While Alberta implemented a single-site working policy to minimize spread from one facility to another like other provinces did, the report said Alberta’s policy took effect later than others.

ENOUGH BEDS AND VENTILATORS, NOT STAFF

The third recommendation included implementing strategies in Alberta to support staff capacity within the health care sector and ensure necessary flexibility to fill staffing shortages in the continuing care system.

Staffing levels during the first wave of the pandemic were comparable to those during pre-pandemic times for health care aides, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses, the report said. The number of nurse practitioners increased by one per cent from January to July 2020.

“Based on the available data on staffing, there was a minimal to moderate impact on overall staffing levels,” the report said.

The report added that while ventilator capacity was sufficient to address COVID-19 cases, the challenge was availability of ICU beds and staff to manage them.

“The number of ICU beds and the staff needed to manage them were outnumbered by the number of ventilators.”

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID

The independent report found uptake of provincial supports targeted at small and medium-sized businesses was low during the first wave of the pandemic. It recommended that there needs to be strategies to “increase uptake” of financial supports to help Alberta businesses adversely affected by the pandemic.

“The combination of low uptake, observable economic decline, and concern about viability of businesses going forward suggest that available funding should be maximized,” the fourth recommendation read. “This may require sector engagement and/or adjustment to thresholds.”

The economic impact of COVID-19 was “more pronounced” in Alberta due to the crash of oil prices before the pandemic and further decline during the first wave, the report said.

“Alberta’s dependence on the energy sector as a large contributor of provincial GDP, meant that it was hit harder by the oil price crash than other provinces,” the report indicated.

When it came to essential services allowed to remain open during the pandemic, the report detailed how Alberta’s definition was “broader” that other Canadian jurisdictions allowing more businesses to remain open.

However, as compared to other provinces, there was no wide variation in the amount of business closures or level of consumer spending.

“Despite keeping its economy ‘more open’ during the first wave, Alberta’s consumer spending and it’s economic decline still followed a similar trajectory to other Canadian provinces,” the report said.

“Alberta’s softer business restrictions did not stop declines in consumer spending.”

PROVINCIAL COMMUNICATION COULD BE 'MORE EFFECTIVE'

Lastly, the report recommended closer collaboration with municipalities to help better implement pandemic response measures.

“The province did not have a ready-made communications plan that was ‘fit for purpose’ for such a large-scale, sustained and Alberta-wide emergency,” the report said.

“The implementation of provincial measures could be more effective, efficient and better aligned through closer collaboration and increased two-way communication.”

KENNEY ‘FAILED ALBERTANS’ DURING FIRST WAVE: NDP

The official opposition said the report demonstrated how the premier failed Albertans during the first wave.

“It is abundantly clear that Jason Kenney and the United Conservatives failed Albertans in the first wave, learned nothing from the second wave and ignored these recommendations ahead of the third wave,” NDP deputy leader Sarah Hoffman said in a statement.

“What we see in this report is that Jason Kenney was warned back in January, if not earlier, about the issues we are currently facing and despite clear recommendations, he did nothing to prevent them.”

Read the full report here:

Health Alberta Covid 19 Pandemic Response Review Final Report by CTV News Edmonton on Scribd

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Diego Romero