From outbreaks to mass casualty events, Alberta's health system preps for G7 summit

CBC

3 days ago

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Alberta's health system is being prepared for a variety of scenarios, including disease outbreaks and mass casualty incidents, ahead of the G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis later this month.
According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), which has been planning for the event since last year, 150 health personnel will be deployed to various sites in Calgary and the Bow Corridor to support the high profile event.
World leaders will gather in Kananaskis from June 15 to 17 and thousands of delegates, journalists and others are expected to descend upon the Calgary region.
"AHS has robust emergency response plans in place for all hospital sites for scenarios such as mass casualty incidents, food-borne illness, protests, wildfires or extreme weather events," an AHS spokesperson said in an email.
"These plans include co-ordinating with the provincial government, Health Canada, local law enforcement and other partners as appropriate."
"It's a very large operation," said Dr. James Talbot, a former chief medical officer of health for Alberta, who is not involved in planning this event but understands the logistics of public health based on his years in the top job.
In addition to security planning for an event of of this scale, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to prevent illness and injury and ensure the health system can respond quickly and appropriately if anything happens, said Talbot.
"Getting all your ducks in a row, so that hopefully you don't have to use any of it — but if you do, that it goes seamlessly — is really a labour-intensive and time-intensive operation," said Talbot, whose tenure in the top job ended in 2015. He is now an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta's school of public health.
Ensuring the health and safety of heads of state is a complicated process involving local, provincial, federal and international governments and agencies, according to Talbot.
He expects ambulances, helicopters, hospitals and ICUs will likely be prepared and on standby.
Doctors, nurses and other staff will be needed to work in emergency rooms, ICUs, labs and diagnostic testing.
Equipment such as masks are likely being stockpiled along with a variety of drugs and blood supplies, he added.
Some world leaders may bring along their own health and security personnel, Talbot said, and that can require a high degree of co-ordination.
"For instance, the American president often travels with their own ICU staff, a portable operating room, their own diagnostic capacity and obviously might decide that they would prefer to have a president or member of the staff stabilized and then sent directly, as quickly as possible, to an American institution," said Talbot.
"But that will not be true of all of the nations that participate."
In the months leading up events such as this, many steps are taken to prevent health problems such as outbreaks of infectious diseases or food-borne illnesses, according to Talbot.
That would include repeated water quality testing at the venues, ensuring catering services are hygienic and safe and staff are healthy, as well as inspections of mechanical HVAC systems to ensure they can handle air quality issues such as wildfire smoke, he said.
According to AHS, the RCMP handles the summit's overall risk assessments, and the federal government is responsible for ensuring all arrangements for the event and all costs associated with protecting the health of heads of state.
A federal government spokesperson said Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are working with all levels of government along with private sector partners on health and safety efforts.
"Health Canada and PHAC are taking precautionary steps to be ready, if called upon by the Province of Alberta, to help respond to a range of incidents, including an infectious disease outbreak, weather related emergencies, or an event causing mass casualties at the summit site or elsewhere," the spokesperson said in an email.
"Federal support available includes a highly trained team of medical professionals who would be the first medical responders on the scene in the event of any medical incident."
A stockpile of personal protective equipment, biomedical equipment and pharmaceuticals is available to provinces if they run out or their supplies are not immediately available, the department said.
Similar preparations were made for previous large events, including the G7 leaders' summit in Charlevoix, Que., in 2018.
"It's really good to be prepared. It's really good to be thinking about this. But I would say everyone on the front lines is just hopeful nothing happens," said Dr. Paul Parks, past-president of the Alberta Medical Association.
Parks, who is also an emergency room doctor in Medicine Hat, said hospitals are already under strain.
"We don't have a lot of give in the system and it will have major impacts if we had to absorb something significant."