May 4, 2021

The Honourable Jason Kenney

Premier of Alberta
307 Legislature Building
10800 97 Avenue
Edmonton AB T5K 2B6

Dear Premier Kenney,

We are a group of intensive care physicians critical care professionals and respirologists serving
the people of Alberta. We write this open letter to you and implore you to take the necessary
actions to control the spread of COVID-19, which is rapidly spiralling out of control in Alberta.

This province now has the highest number of new cases per week of any province or state in
North America. Alberta also has the highest number of active cases by population of any province
in Canada. The numbers of new cases, hospitalizations and ICU admissions are rapidly increasing
and have now exceeded the previous peak numbers seen last December. Now that most older
Albertans have received at least one dose of vaccine, we are seeing increasing numbers of
younger patients who are more severely ill being hospitalized and admitted to our ICUs. This will
also result in thousands of Albertans suffering significant disability for months or years due to
long-COVID. The increase in cases is due to the more transmissible variants, Alberta’s premature
relaxing of public health measures following the second wave of COVID and the current
inadequate public health restrictions to combat COVID transmission in the province.

Major surgical procedures are being postponed by Alberta Health Services to reduce the need
for postoperative care in ICUs. Modelling projections, that have been extremely accurate to date,
indicate that if the rate of spread is not adequately controlled soon there will be between 300
and 320 COVID patients in addition to the usual 150-174 non-COVID critically ill patients admitted
to the ICUs in Alberta by the end of May, 2021.

Although additional beds and equipment can likely be provided, it is highly doubtful that
healthcare workers with the necessary expertise can be made available to staff the extra ICU
surge beds and provide the level of care required by critically ill patients. This number of ICU
patients would also exceed the capacity of the extra surge beds and would result in activation of
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the Alberta Critical Care Triage Protocol. This type of protocol is typically used during a major
natural disaster, wartime or a pandemic where maximal public health restrictions have failed to
prevent crashing the acute hospital system. It is clear that in this third COVID wave Alberta has
still not implemented the necessary measures to break the transmission of infection in the
province.

It is the constitutional responsibility and moral duty of the Government of Alberta to protect the
health and lives of Albertans as a priority. It is past time for the Government of Alberta to
institute strict public health measures similar to those implemented in the first wave. The
reduction in the number of cases in BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec show that success is
possible when strong measures are implemented. It is also crucial that these measures be
enforced.

Failure to do so will result in thousands of Albertans of all ages and in all parts of the province
becoming seriously ill, maximizing the numbers of those with long-term disability due to COVID,
crashing the hospital system and overwhelming its staff, and increasing the hardship of
marginalized families of essential workers, minorities and their children. It also undermines the
success of immunization since a strategy that fails to bring COVID under control also decreases
the protection of those who have only had one dose of vaccine. In addition, failure to control the
pandemic in Alberta will delay the province’s economic recovery. This is preventable. We have
already delayed far too long in protecting Albertans. We urge you to take effective actions now.

Yours sincerely,

Noel Gibney MB FRCP(C)

Aws Alherbish MD FRCP(C)
George Alvarez MD FRCP(C)
Sean Bagshaw MD MSc FRCP(C)
Tavish Barnes MSc MD FRCP(C)
Mohit Bhutani MD FRCP(C)
Marc Bibeau MD FRCP(C)
Paul Boiteau MD FRCP(C)
Dominic Carney MD FRCP(C)
Dat Chin MB FRCP(C)
Jon Davidow MB FRCP(C)
Krista Dewart RN NP
Nurin Dhanji RN NP
Vivek Dhawan MD FRCP(C)
Dennis Djogovic MD FRCP(C)
Kieran Halloran MD MSc FRCP(C)
Dean Karvellas MD MSc FRCP(C)
Rachel Khadaroo MD FRCS(C)
John Kortbeek MD FRCS(C) FACS
Julie Kromm BMSc MD FRCP(C)
Leslie LaPierre RN NP

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Vincent Lau MD FRCP(C)
Rhoda Lee RN NP
Dale Lien MD FRCP(C)
Allen Liu MD FRCP(C)
Jason Lord MD FRCP(C)
Warren Luksun MD FRCP(C)
Erika MacIntyre MD FRCP(C)
Darren Markland MD FRCP(C)
Irv Mayers MD FRCP(C)
Michael Meier MD FRCS(C)
Richard Novick MD FRCP(C)
Arabesque Parker MD FRCP(C)
Marcus Povitz MD FRCP(C)
Oleksa Rewa MD FRCP(C)
Elizabeth Rokosh MD FRCP(C)
Adam Romanovsky MD FRCP(C)
Michael Russell MD FRCP(C)
Matthew Simmonds MD FRCP(C)
Alan Sobey MD FRCS(C)
Dan Stollery MD FRCP(C)
Teddie Tanguay RN NP
Alain Tremblay MD FRCP(C)
Pierrre Marc Villeneuve MD FRCP(C)
Jason Weatherald MD FRCP(C)
Justin Weinkauf MD FRCP(C)
Sandy Widder MD FRCS(C)
Brad Young RN NP

c.c. Hon. Tyler Shandro, Minister, Alberta Health

Ms. Lorna Rosen, Deputy Minister, Alberta Health
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Chief Medical Officer of Health, Alberta Health
Dr. Verna Yiu, President & CEO, Alberta Health Services
Dr. Paul Boucher, President, Alberta Medical Association

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