AHS CEO Caught Spreading Misinformation About ICU Bed Capacity

Written By Wyatt Claypool, Posted on September 25, 2021

Alberta Health Service CEO Dr. Verna Yiu, during a COVID-19 press conference on September 23, made multiple claims about hospital capacity that could be classified as misinformation based on AHS data showing the narrative that hospitals could be overwhelmed is heavily exaggerated and potentially outright false.

David Dickson, a former Liverpool police officer who now runs a cybersecurity firm in Alberta, created a video matching Dr. Yiu’s statements in the press conference against AHS’ up-to-date data which deviates from the figures she reports as being true. 

The most egregious of Dr. Yiu’s claim is that currently, 310 Albertans are in ICU and that Alberta has never had that many patients in ICU in its entire history, despite AHS’ own data showing that the province consistently has had more patients in ICU on average year-to-year even before COVID was a public health threat. 

Rather shockingly despite Dr. Yiu saying that Alberta currently has 310 patients in ICU the actual number of ICU beds listed during late August by AHS day-to-day is only 190 while 1,491 beds have been funded since April 2020. 

This means that despite having the budget allocated for up to 1,491 beds they are only actually utilizing 190 beds then suddenly when Alberta had an influx of ICU patients the number of ICU beds available suddenly jumped to being more than 310 beds to take in all the new patients. 

Regular Acute Care beds are also funded so that AHS can be operating 

Alberta is supposedly at risk of having its hospitals overwhelmed yet no matter how many more people are admitted to the hospitals and even ICU the capacity continues to expand yet always keeping the AHS within a crisis situation. Beds coming available while Albertans are being told we are nearly out of beds constantly is incredibly dishonest, especially when Premier Jason Kenney is passing new restrictions based on AHS claiming they are in a crisis. 

Chart showing total ICU beds changing day-to-day and significantly increasing and decreasing as patients in ICU increase and decrease.

Chart showing total ICU beds changing day-to-day and significantly increasing and decreasing as patients in ICU increase and decrease.

So is Dr. Yiu lying about AHS resources and ICU capacity, is she just ignorant of the data, or is AHS data wrong?

Are AHS bureaucrats hyping up the recent rise in infections and then easily adapting to take in the increase in COVID-19 patients coming into the hospital to seem as if they are more heroic than they really are? The data on AHS’ own website simply does not support the claims that the hospitals were ever at risk of being overwhelmed unless we pretend our capacity is less than it was decades ago.

Premier Kenney and former Health Minister Tyler Shandro should be aware of this data coming out of AHS, so there it is odd that they are pushing the notion that Alberta is in a crisis. Instead, they opted for more restrictions instead of contextualizing why Alberta seemed to always be on the brink of hospitals being overwhelmed, despite having the ability to increase capacity overnight.

Wyatt Claypool

Wyatt is a student at Mount Royal University, where he is the president of its Campus Conservative club. In his writing, he focuses on covering provincial and federal politics, firearms regulation, and the energy sector. Wyatt has also previously written for The Post Millennial.

61 responses to “AHS CEO Caught Spreading Misinformation About ICU Bed Capacity”

  1. Vivian O’Hara says:

    Would Dr Yiu or someone from the AHS hierarchy please respond to this? We need the truth.

  2. Holly says:

    I was just sent to get a EKG/ECG done at a lab. My Dr told me not to go to the hospital as they were breaking at the seams and their lab is closed to the public unless your in hospital. She also said they are almost at the point where triage has to decide who lives or dies.
    I went to lab and was turned away as they DONT do STAT tests, and told go to hospital. I was fearful, what if I couldn’t get in, my Dr suspected a heart attack. Also I was scared of catching Covid.
    When I got there, there was NO ONE in the waiting room! I was brought back into EMERG in less than 10min. To my utter surprise it was dead! There were 4 patients including myself and NONE with Covid symptoms (you can hear everything it was so quiet). There was 1 Dr and 2 nurses.
    It was like the twilight zone! My brain wasn’t understanding, everything I’d heard and read about suggested that hospitals were overwhelmed and overflowing with Covid patients!
    Weirder yet, as I left they asked me to put my phone in my pocket! There were signs all over stating that “Absolutely no pictures or recordings were to be taken in the hospital at all”
    We are being lied to! The Fear Mongering from AHS top staff, the Main Stream Media, and our Elected officials, especially Justin Trudeau first telling us, then bribing, then shaming and now Threatening us fellow Canadians to get the vaccine because our health care systems are at max capacity in much of our Nation!
    I’ve gone over my experience several times wondering if it was just that hospital, until I started seeing other people stating the same things about their hospitals. Now I know the truth, and watching this “lady” lie about how many ICU beds and the most we’ve ever had in ICU ever……. I can’t help but to feel ashamed of my Countries leaders, and the lies they stand for, and force others to lie for and with them, for whatever the crazy agenda is, that they have and are implementing.

  3. Kat Meijer says:

    Hubby was over to our local rural hospital to the lab.. no one in emerg or in the waiting room. Lab lady said hardly anyone admitted. just some of the care home seniors for the usual stuff. Now when I was in there previously to my husband, I was told by another medical personnel that the hospital was full of "Covid" cases.. I talked to my EMT on route to another hospital for a CT scan.. He said it was the opposite…but could not elaborate on it.

  4. Guest says:

    Hello,

    I am a RN working in a Northern Alberta County with approximately 10,000 citizens. We have had 3 COVID deaths in 2 years. I am personally familiar with 2 of these deaths and both patients had life threatening pre-existing conditions. One of the patients that died was fully vaccinated. The itital PCR test on this patient was positive and the second "rapid antigen" test was negative. These tests are not reliable and even the CDC said they should not be used. This is why there are so many people testing positive yet have no symptoms of illness.

    I have also been watching acute care/ICU beds in the region and I agree that there is not a bed crisis.

    What we do have is a staffing crisis.This crisis is due to an aging population of both patients and staff.
    We started the year out with 10 doctors in my town. 3 doctors have moved away. 2 doctors are over 70 and are not covering our emegency department anymore. So, we are down to five doctors to work in their private practice AND to cover the emergency department 24/7. To make matters worse, Shandro capped the amount of patients the doctors can bill for on a daily basis. Sorry, but you can’t expect these doctors to work for free.

    Additionally, our county has a second small hospital that was staffed with 2 doctors and locums. One of those doctors has moved away so the doctors in our area will be forced to increase the patient load from this doctor leaving. The emergency department in this hospital has been closed at differenct times due to no doctor available to work.

    I know of 3 nurses in our hospital that are over 70. In addition, our hospital administrator is retiring this month and one of the regional managers is retiring Oct 1st.

    Do we have a crisis? Yes, we do but it has nothing to do with COVID. The crisis is from aging staff that have not been replaced with younger people. It is a problem of an aging demographic and poor planning by health authorities. During the "Klein cuts" of the 90’s, 3 schools of nursing were closed in Edmonton alone. These were never reopened and we have lost 300 nurses a year because of this.

    I do not work in emergency but I do work on a unit beside emergency so I can see the coming and going of patients. We are not overwhelmed with COVID patients. The other weekend I worked and went to the ER to speak with the oncall doctor. He was not there and the ER was empty. No patients.

    I worked the acute unit this week and we had 1 covid positive patient, double vaccinated. Half of the patients on the unit were double vaccinated.

    Do not believe the hype. There is no crisis other than a staffing crisis that has been brewing for decades. Despite this, I expect to be terminated in the next 3 weeks for refusing to get the jab. I am a loyal, reliable employee that has not had a sick day in 2 years, yet I will be terminated.

    In conclusion, let me say that I have purposely infected myself with a COVID positive family member and I did not become ill. This pandemic has nothing to do with health and everything to do with controlling the population.

    Vax passports = yellow stars.

  5. Keenan Tameling says:

    Keep sharing this stuff around every little bit will help wake up the sheeple

  6. Keenan Tameling says:

    Government does know how to fight a virus so they fight the people
    Easier to win

  7. Ace says:

    AHS has been lying since the start. Instilling fear in people and pushing unsafe vaccines on people is wrong on so many levels. I work at the U of A hospital and the Emergency department is often empty. We have an ICU that sits empty. We are not short beds. We are short staffed because of the way people are being treated. The discrimination against unvaccinated people, whether they are staff, patients or family members is out of control. AHS is about to feel a massive loss in their workforce and it is all due to their unethical behaviour.

    It starts with people thinking they are better than you. It leads to segregation creating an Us vs Them mentality. The government agenda becomes adapted by the people who believe they are doing what’s “right”. The people who refuse to comply are discredited, bullied, harassed and silenced. Privileges are taken away from those who won’t comply and society turns against them. This is how war starts. Apparently nothing has been learned through history. Nazi Germany, Rwanda and Canada have more in common than you think.

  8. Ostracizato says:

    I read only chinese doctors names …. in upper health system … feels like this is no longer Canada but a communist colony …

  9. Josh says:

    If strongly encourage anyone reading this to research the ratio of ICU beds in a typical hospital. Based on what I can find the author’s numbers don’t add up. I’d love to know the source for the funded "ICU" beds

  10. Guest MD says:

    Hey RN in Northern AB. I tried to book a weekend to cover Athabasca as a locum, but the regional medical director forbade the hospital chief of staff from letting me work there because I successfully treated 2 covid inpatients with Ivermectin. The 3rd patient was 95 and had no change after the ivermectin.

    • andrea says:

      I would love to connect! I’ve been looking for someone like you!

    • LK says:

      Good for you using Ivermectin. I used it on myself and recovered nicely. (I used Bimectin). There are many Albertans trying to find access to ivermectin via prescription. Please text me at 780-270-3742 if you are willing to write Rx for Ivermectin.

    • ade says:

      Hopefull you’ll text me as well, Rx Ivermectin. 7809032263. Thank you.

    • Ivermectin says:

      Is it true not many MD’s prescribe Ivermectin, even off-label? I’ve heard there is a shortage of it in Canada. Purely in the interest of helping others, email Info-Ivermectin@protonmail.com if you’d like information on how to discretely obtain large quantities.

      • Melissa says:

        Your email does not exist?????

      • James Moir says:

        No, not many MD’s treat patients with Invermectin, even off label. The reason is simple. There have been a lot of clinical trials done since the Invermectin proponents started touting it, and virtually all concluded that it makes no difference to clinical outcome. Hence, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ab send a memo to all licensed physicians that they should not prescribe it, as there is zero evidence of its efficacy, and proper safety studies have not been done when using it to treat Covid. The memo suggested MD’s NOT prescribe invermectin, or any alternative therapy, unless such use is based on best evidence. Invermectin does not fall into this category, as there is pretty solid evidence that it is ineffective for covid, and potentially harmful . If you have covid and want to use it, go ahead, but you will have to obtain it through the black market (these people dont bother themselves with nonsense such as scientific evidence), and understand there is ZERO evidence it will do anything except potentially harm you. Not the facts you want to hear (science is full of that), but facts, none the less.

        • Stevie Jeebus says:

          Look at this shill. It has worked, for plenty of people. And for many doctors too. The studies don’t take into account they are used alongside protocols that involve more than iver, the city in India that almost wiped out covid with it, and rmhiw the Japanese medical board opened up its use. There is a full on propaganda campaign against it in the states, and that should tell you something

        • Cabingirl says:

          Ivermectin is listed in the COVID treatment protocol on the NIH site.

  11. Eric says:

    Great job and write up! Thank you Wyatt. We need you!

  12. E says:

    Last month I spent 6 days in the hospital due to having adverse reactions to my second vaccine dose. I’m 27 years old and healthy, and was basically told that my ‘panic attack’ the week prior was likely a heart attack, which weakened my heart and left me vulnerable, soon after developing pneumonia. I was told right to my face by the cardiologist that he had no other explanation for the initial condition developing (Myocarditis) other than my vaccine, however none of my hospital records state this as the finding. The reason is listed as ‘unknown’…

    I’d like to believe that what’s happening is real, that we can trust the people in positions of power, that the vaccine is safe. But my almost full-week staycation at a major hospital has drastically altered my opinion. About a lot of things. Seems to be a clear staffing problem within our health care system, not a capacity problem.

    • James Moir says:

      Ah, you are one of the very rare complictions of vaccination. Yes, Myocarditis is a potential risk of vaccination ( a much greater risk for one who actually contracts covid btw) and I’m very sorry you are the one who drew the short straw.. But pleased dont fear monger and suggest to people that if they get vaccinated they are going to get myocarditis. It is so rare after vaccination as to be almost unreportable. But reading your post will stop , I am sure 100’s, from getting vaccinated.

      • Rob Douge says:

        "rare" for now lol

      • Cabin Girl says:

        Not rare at all. I have a chart that (this window won’t allow me to past) from the FDA showing that for every death over a 6 month period, Pfizer alone caused 13 deaths for every 3 lives saved.

      • Stevie Jeebus says:

        Your reply is literally cookie cutter propaganda. There are more people suffering from this than is being reported. People want to risk it with CV or the jab, that’s fine. But forcing people and shaming them while treating people like second class citizens for something that is already having under reported issues and then acting like the jab is a miracle when it already needs a third shot – is just stupid

      • LJ says:

        So very sorry you drew the short straw?! Very rare?? Would you have the same apathy if YOU drew the short straw and suffered a vaccine injury? Or how about YOUR CHILD? Or would you be one to deny that what you were experiencing was even linked to your recent vaccination?? We have to stop bullying the vaccine injured and saying this is okay, it’s ‘rare’ and that if one person dies compared to the 100’s+ that are saved it’s acceptable because while your life gets back to ‘normal’ the families of those that are injured or die wont ever get back to ‘normal’.

    • E says:

      I would just like to say that I am by no means ‘fear mongering’.. I’m simply explaining what happened to me. I don’t regret the decision to get vaccinated and in no way did I encourage people not to be vaccinated. These side effects are not as ‘rare’ as they say they are. Had I not developed a secondary condition (pneumonia), I likely would’ve never linked together something was wrong, and would’ve likely recovered with no trip to the doctors whatsoever. Most people who develop this side effect probably don’t even notice. I didn’t, I thought it was anxiety. Which is completely reasonable, the world is a scary place right now!

  13. Rachel Sap says:

    Thank you Wyatt!
    For anyone reading these comments, for continued and uncensored information, please join our group called CANADIAN PATRIOTS on Telegram. Our link to join is:
    https://t.me/CANADIAN PATRIOTS

  14. Nadia says:

    I listened to that and the whole message. The way she strung her words and sentences. Didn’t clarify the except number of patients that actually came into hospital because of COVID being their primary reason as many enter intobICU for many of reasons, it being a trauma hospital. Having another condition they are legitimately suffering from like pre existing heart conditions, cancer, renal disease, accidents, you name it, but later test positive is another story. Plus not mentioning their ages or other co-morbidities as we know now 80% that are most severe and dying have pre-existing heart conditions, diabetes, obesity and renal conditions as illustrated on AB Gov site under “comorbidities” with numbers of.
    She was strategic in her wording in sequencing sentences giving certain ‘impressions’ while leaving out details and wording information in a certain way, pausing at particular moments. The formate was intensional so clear to see.

  15. Melissa says:

    Can someone share the links to the data for September 2021 ICU beds please. Been getting a lot of questions and interest in this article. Thank you.

    • James Moir says:

      Not to minimize the seriousness of Covid and the pandemic, but, I am an anesthesiologist who worked at the Royal Alex in Edmonton for 22 years. Coming in to work "on call" meant working 24 hours non stop until the next call person came in. I can assure you that the first thing I was told when starting a 24 hour call, 80% of the time, was that "there are no ICU beds in all of Alberta". Sometimes this message was extended to all of Western Canada. If we got traumas, stabbings, shootings,whatver that required ICU post op, we had to care for them in the recovery room, or send them to the ward with "special monitoring" and nursing care, a poor substitute for the ICU bed they desperately needed.. Every time we had patients on ventiltors being cared for in the PARR (post anesthetic recovery room), by PARR nurses, who, while very competent at PARR nursing, had no training in ICU nursing. There were very many nights that I seriously considered closing the OR’s, as we could not handle it. We had to make "life and death" triage decisions all the time. Suggesting the current situation is being caused by and out of control pandemic, is only half the issue. It is being caused by a woefully mismanaged medical system which has no resources to deal with an unexpected and anticipated crisis such as Covid 19

  16. TDB says:

    I don’t know where this dude actually got his data but as a currently practicing ICU RN for nearly 40 years I can tell you that we have NEVER seen these levels of occupancy in the ICU’s! Also, we would NEVER be funded for 1400+ ICU beds simply because there has NEVER been a demand for that level of ICU care in AB. and with daily funding costs of $2000+/bed/day the funding would have to be astronomical – simply put, this would NOT be sustainable. These figures look as though they’ve been doctored for the sole purpose of creating yet more confusion and division within this province. In addition, whether or not there are beds – there are NO skilled nurses and Dr.’s to care for these patients – we are struggling to manage the patients we have in the face of a WORLD WIDE shortage of nurses, Dr.’s and RT’s. Be careful what you print or accept as fact!

    • Mya Buttreeks says:

      A shortage of Dr’s and nurses eh? Yet they’re willing to make it worse by terminating them if they don’t get vaccinated. This was a manufactured crisis from the beginning.

      • Mk says:

        Please consider that unvaccinated staff not being allowed to work in high risk/ high potential for infection environments may be for the sake of not having staff contract covid and pass it on to other health care staff causing an even greater shortage in healthcare workers?

        • Damon Radison says:

          What the hell are you even talking about? So losing 100% of unvaxxed nurses and staff is better than having 1% of those unvaxxed actually getting sick enough to not come in to work for a week? Also, the vaxxed are spreading it at the same rate so quit saying it’s to protect others. The vax can only protect the one who gets it…if it even does that.

          • James Moir says:

            To suggest that the vaccinated are "spreading it" at the same as the unvaccinated is either a blatant lie, or misunderstanding of the facts. Vaccinated people are 95% less likely to spread it. less that 2% of the vaccinated are in hospital. If EVERYONE was vaccinted (a pipe dream, I know), then for every 100 patients currently in hospital pre vaccintion, there would be 2 post vaccination.. Vaccination is no about ensuring no one gets Covid, because 98 % of those who get it do fine It is to stop the huge waste of health care resources, so the non Covid patients can also get the care they need. It is about topping the pandemic. Not rocket science

          • Stevie Jeebus says:

            Yea these are bogus numbers. 95 percent is basically on relative risk reduction, not absolute risk reduction and that was way before the delta variant. But I’m not surprised people push these parroted numbers around without actually understanding how it’s been politicized. Also, there have been studies that show the rate of unvaccinated being counted in hospital are mostly asymptomatic or there for something else. But leave no opportunity for the media to exaggerate and distort numbers be wasted.

    • JuiceBusters says:

      Then I want the entire AHS fired and replaced from the ground up with an entirely new system of administrators and everyone else. If this was true (the claims) then AHS is a EMBARRASSING FAILURE and tells me you and your colleagues are lazy, ineffective and just plain bad at your jobs. You should be disrespected and fired and remembered as a system so lazy, so stupid, so incompetent that with MASSIVE FUNDING you cannot keep up with Covid nearing 2 years after the worst is over, with all knowledge and they are FAILING to even keep up with lower-than-average ICU rates. Fired. Booooo you SUCKED and failed.

    • Cody says:

      Having enough nurses or doctors has nothing to do with what this video is arguing. On that topic though, why get rid of portion of your staff if you are already in a shortage? Something doesn’t add up.

  17. Lance says:

    My mother was in the ICU for a spell in 1994…. the ICU was maxed out and she had to be moved to make room for a more sever case, this almost cost her her life. Our ICU’s have always been running at capacity…. Also. Not all of the covid positive cases in the ICU’s are there because of covid related issues, some just jappen to have covid.

  18. KK says:

    First thing I notice is that this commie lady is a "CEO". This implies that AHS is a private corporation. So it’s sucking funding (ie our taxpayer dollars) from their partners in crime the Alberta and Canadian governments. Because it’s a corporation and not a public service agency, it can lie all it wants. This is NOT an entity the public should deal with, especially when sick and vulnerable. Clearly the compulsory so-called public healthcare scheme was another evil agenda designed from the get go to rope people into their death trap, which is now wide open.

  19. keith says:

    My question is where does this go from here? Who do you go to with this info and main thing is proof these numbers are accurate? I read the comments on here but no reply and will I have my questions answered? And when is the rest of Canada going to see the truth once and for all?

  20. Ivermectin says:

    It’s obvious they will never authorize Ivermectin as part of the way to stop the pandemic, instead opting for experimental gene therapies. If you’d like more information on how to get Ivermectin in Canada please email me at Info-Ivermectin@protonmail.com. I want to help Albertans obtain this life-saving medicine.

  21. Get the Facts Right says:

    You made several errors in your calculations. You compared adult general systems ICU beds (as referred to by Dr. Yiu) to all critical care beds (ie including pediatric, CCU, etc.) as is included in the data set. Also you double-counted the largest ICU in the province (UAH ICU), inflating the numbers.
    If you actually care about the facts, you should consider issuing immediate corrections and an apology.

    • Cabingirl says:

      This is what I got off the AHS projection site from April 2020.
      AHS plans to have 2,250 COVID-19 designated acute care beds by the
      end of April:
      – As of April 3, 2020, 1,935 beds are available for COVID patients;
      AHS plans to be able to increase ICU capacity by 1081 beds for
      COVID-19 patients by the end of April, if necessary. Well that would add up to 3,016 beds just for COVID patients
      So exactly what are you talking about Mr. Get The facts when you say the TNT doubled-counted the ICU at the UAH?

  22. Nick Dira says:

    If you really want to get down to the truth why doesn’t The National Telegraph submit a F.O.I.P. ( Freedom of Information ) Request ? Then when AHS sidesteps your request, then you will know that they are lying.

  23. Jmalloc says:

    Someone in Alberta, why not press record on your phone (video or audio) and get evidence that this is fabricated? We can make it go viral PUN INTENDED

    • Holly Kronan says:

      I have! And the majority of ppl who seen it called it BS, said it was filmed pre-Covid (even seeing signs about it) no one wants to see the truth! They listen too and believe the government!
      Those of us who are awake can see what’s happening! I wonder how bad it has to get before they realize they are screwed and screwed over their whole country!

  24. Teresa says:

    And there suppose to be telling us what to do, when they can’t get their numbers or facts straight?? Would be nice to see honest people and truly knowledgable people in charge. Enough with the fear mongering, maybe it’s time you all start telling the truth.