Southern Alberta women delivering in Montana, Toronto

Five Alberta women were forced to leave the province to deliver their high-risk babies because southern Alberta's only neo-natal intensive care unit was full.

Four women from the Calgary and Lethbridge areas have been sent to hospitals in Great Falls, Mont.,in the past two weeks to deliver their babies. On Monday night, a Lethbridge woman who is expecting triplets was put on a medical evacuation flight to Toronto.

Toni MacDonald, who is in charge of child health programs for the Calgary Health Region, said sending patients to theUnited Statesor Toronto is unusual. In the past, neo-natal intensive carebeds have been found at hospitals in British Columbia,Edmonton or Saskatchewan.

But she said there is a shortage of neo-natal intensive care unit nurses that hasled tobed closures at Calgary's Foothills Medical Centre, which has southern Alberta's only such unit.

"I'd say that right now, we're probably looking at least another month or longer of close to peak capacity, if not above."

Staffing problems, high demand

Dr. Brian Hauck, an obstetrician who works at Calgary's Foothills Hospital, said there is no end in sight tothe neo-natal intensive care crunch in Western Canada.

"This is just like the perfect storm. It's a combination of some centres are probably short of beds, as ours is from time to time. Some centres are probably short of staff, as is the issue right now with our centre. And the other thing is just for some reason there happens to be a lot of patients that require the care."

Michelle Senkow, the head of the nurses union at Foothills, said there is a shortage of nurses because the hospital hasn't kept up with the growingnumber of birthsand that's meantpoor working conditions in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

Senkow said nurses have been forced to work overtime as a result and burn-out is an issueamong the unit's staff.

The Calgary Health Region said the over-capacity issue at the Foothills is not a short-term problem. The region is drawing up plans for a new maternity hospital to deal with patient demand.