By Glenn Hicks

P.A. neonatal unit compared to telephone booth amidst call for improvements

Nov 21, 2018 | 4:00 PM

The picture accompanying this article shows a team of professionals working elbow-to-elbow in the cramped 20 feet by 18 feet confines of a space that has been likened to a “telephone booth” by a local doctor.

The image of the hectic medical scene this week has highlighted the pressing need for improvements at Prince Albert’s Victoria Hospital.

The post on the SaskPeds Twitter account of Saskatchewan’s Head of Pediatrics, show up to 20 professionals who were giving intensive care to triplets in the neonatal unit. They were born 25 weeks premature. (Physicians commonly use this reference although technically it means the babies were born at 25 weeks gestation, or in this case around three months early.)

“We had three really premature babies, three physicians, two residents, at least eight nurses in there, X-ray tech, and a couple of respiratory therapists, all stabilizing these little creatures,” pediatrician Dr. Duane Bulat told paNOW.

He said the babies themselves do not take up the precious space, but it’s all the equipment that’s required in a situation like this.

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“You’re having to get in IV lines, and take over their breathing for them with ventilators, and we had to do 10 or 12 X-rays, “Bulat said. “When you’re trying to get all that equipment into that telephone booth we’re working in, it just makes the job very challenging day-to-day.”

Bulat said expanding the unit is “imperative” and the space was the same one he used when he came to the hospital 16 years ago.

“We’re not the same institution we were [back then]; we’re doing a lot more,” he said, referring to the ever-increasing amount of babies being delivered at the hospital because of the rapid growth of communities in the North.

The powerful image of the claustrophobic but professional activity in the neonatal unit has become the perfect poster moment to highlight the fundraising drive by the Victoria Hospital Foundation. It aims to raise over $2 million in the coming years to expand and improve the space.

The babies’ and families’ need is now

The picture was posted to the Twitter account of Dr. Laurence Givelichian, Provincial Head of the Department of Pediatrics, Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and University of Saskatchewan. He is also part of the team working with the SHA, local physicians, and the Victoria Hospital Foundation to design a new unit.

He commented on his social media post that while the Victoria Hospital “didn’t have the formal designation for this level of care, the team had proven over and over again they could practice at a higher level.”

“They work brilliantly to give the best care they can to the babies and the newborns who need the help, [but] they are in desperate need of a better space,” Givelichian told paNOW.

He said the plans involved creating a new space with a Level 2 designation that would allow for about 10 babies to be kept in their own private bays at any one time, along with their mothers and fathers. Currently the room has space for four babies.

He said the Level 2 designation is a standard of space and resources that would allow the medical teams to operate consistently at the sort of levels they did during the triplet situation this week. Currently, he said that sort of effort was not sustainable in the small space.

“The estimation is that [once the new unit is built] we would be able to keep approximately 200 babies right here in Prince Albert that won’t have to be transferred to Saskatoon,” he said.

Givelichian was unable to say when the new neonatal unit would be ready as that was in part dependent on funds raised by the foundations, but added that it was not based on any timelines around a new or renovated Victoria Hospital, which may be many years off.

“The decision was made that these new babies have the need now and much earlier than when a new hospital will be built,” he said. “The babies and their families deserve this sort of care in Prince Albert. “

The Victoria Hospital Foundation NICU campaign for sick babies has been launched and the 13th anniversary of the Give A Little Life Radiothon, a 12-hour live broadcast from the lobby of the Vic, will take place Friday, Dec. 7.

The Radiothon runs on all the Jim Pattison Broadcast Groups stations: 900 CKBI, XFM and Power 99 FM.

Editor’s note: this article has been amended to clarify the term ‘premature’ in this case 
 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow