An extra 25 medical ventilators have been ordered by the B.C. health ministry to prepare for the expected surge in H1N1 influenza this winter.

Mechanical ventilators breathe for people who are unable to do so on their own, and the respiratory effects of H1N1 as well as seasonal influenza are expected to put extra demand on ventilators in hospitals. Most people recover from influenza on their own, but those with chronic medical conditions can become seriously ill, and in some cases die.

A consultant’s report released by the NDP Tuesday suggests that with hospital emergency wards already running at capacity, a surge in H1N1 cases could overwhelm them.

“Our first order limitation will not be staff or physical space, but the availability of ventilators,” says the Sept. 8 report prepared by Global Consulting for the B.C. health ministry.

Health Minister Kevin Falcon said the report is a draft that was prepared before the government had results on the effectiveness of ventilators on influenza patients. Since the H1N1 strain emerged in Mexico early this year, southern hemisphere countries including Australia and New Zealand have gone through their winter flu seasons.

Falcon said the Australia and New Zealand results indicate that B.C. should have about 100 ventilators available for pandemic influenza response, and it has about 75. More will be arriving in “weeks” because Falcon said he ordered them on Sept. 15 without waiting for the data from the southern countries.

The consultant’s report estimated that if a “mild” influenza pandemic similar to the one in 1968 were to happen in B.C., the province’s hospitals could be short by “up to 245 mechanical ventilators.”

Falcon said the experience of Australia and New Zealand suggests the impact won’t be that bad, and B.C. will also have access to the federal government stockpile of equipment and antiviral drugs.

“We don’t want people to be unnecessarily panicked, but it is a pandemic, and a pandemic means that there will be significant impacts on our hospitals, on our doctors, on our resources,” Falcon said. “That’s why we have brought in extra steps to allow doctors to be paid for doing phone discussions with their patients. That’s why we’ve allowed them to have unlimited visits by H1N1 patients. It’s one of the reasons we have the 8-1-1 line so people can phone and talk to a registered nurse if they start to feel symptoms of H1N1.”

The federal government is supplying H1N1 vaccine to B.C. that will be available in November. Public health officials will start giving this year’s seasonal influenza vaccine to people over 65 and residents of long-term care homes starting Oct. 13.

When the H1N1 vaccine is available, the seasonal vaccine program will be suspended so all resources can be focused on giving the H1N1 shot to anyone who wants it.