this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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Over-capacity ERs are dangerous choke points. But hospital challenges go far deeper (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 10 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A newborn with a fever waited five hours to be seen by an emergency physician near Toronto.

Patients were surrounded by garbage and urine as they waited 18 to 20 hours for care at a hospital in Fredericton.

And in Alberta, Red Deer's long-beleaguered hospital was forced to hang tarps to create makeshift treatment spaces.

Those headlines come from different hospitals and different provinces. But they all point to the same grim problem: Emergency rooms are overflowing while an array of respiratory illnesses β€” COVID-19 included β€” keep circulating. And it's happening against a backdrop of behind-the-scenes backlogs that turn front-line ERs into dangerous choke points.

The numbers are staggering. More than 10,000 people are in hospital at once across B.C., the most the province has ever seen, while Quebec grapples with the highest level of patients in its emergency rooms in five years.

In Ottawa, the Queensway Carleton Hospital recently said it was operating at 115 per cent occupancy. By midweek, most Montreal emergency rooms were above full capacity, with some operating at roughly 200 per cent.

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[–] Poutinetown@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I don't understand why prevention is not a priority. Free mobile vaccination clinic going to schools, workplaces, retirement community. Health professionals (PT, nurses, pharmacists) checking in by phone with patients at risk of hospitalization. More accessible and cheaper MRI/CTs for common high risk groups, without the need of multiple referrals.

Those are cost effective measures that can keep many patients out of hospitalization, especially preventable ones.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's no uptake. Conservatives in both countries have politicized science and vaccine denial, and efforts to force vaccines at they did before to protect the healthcare system were obstructed.

I can get a free flu shot and a free COVID vax at a local pharmacy very close to me; or the dozen others in close proximity. It's a very effective move to put vaccines in the hands of those who want them but not everyone wants them and we need to address why those people who can get vaxed but aren't are still afforded the rest of the perqs of membership in society once they break the social contract.

They can roll a nurse in a van full of vax doses; but if no one shows up because some hypocrite convinced them not to, because it's politically helpful to kill the healthcare system and force in an American system, then it's not effective to roll that van.

Arrest the people trying to dismantle our healthcare system for a mercenary one - so they can get kickbacks and retire to Cabo - and tax the mercenary clinics to hell and close the system so it works again. Even then it'll take yeeeeears to get back righted but with hope and decent archiving we can leave this whole shitfest in a record for the next generation when some orange-faced realtor-scumbag tries the same shit again.

[–] Poutinetown@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

There's some deep irony that the vaccine mandate was introduced almost 200 years ago in the US by a governor that would run under the National Republican party for the subsequent election. By politicizing and empowering vaccine denial, they are attacking a centenary policy, which is against the philosophy of conservatism ("commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation." according to Google).

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think a lot of it boils down to the provinces being allowed to spend transfer payments however they want to, ie: healthcare/education payments from the feds are not restricted to being used for healthcare/education. Too often you see provincial gov'ts handing out tax credits when they should be increasing taxes instead. Even a 1% increase to provincial sales tax would help ... but politicians are focused on being re-elected vs caring for the needs of everyone in their province.

[–] Poutinetown@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Managing healthcare should not be the job of a minister chosen every 4 years. It should be a non-partisan position, chosen maybe by the government but mainly based on competence and track record.

In the US, Powell and Yellen chaired the federal reserve under both Democratic and Republican governments, not because they were elected for this position, but because they have worked at various levels of government and industry.

On the other hand, this scenario cannot happen in Canada since the ministers are all elected, so unless economists and doctors are running and get elected, they would have to choose ministers without the right qualifications. Even if a doctor is elected, they would still need to spend a considerable amount of time to participate in MP duties, or would otherwise be replaced within 4 years; this time could have been spent on actually implementing useful policies.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fortunately/unfortunately under Canada's Constitution the provinces hold a great deal of power over how transfer payments are spent. Up until fairly recently it wasn't a big issue, but the last few years have made it so.

[–] Poutinetown@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

My comment applies to provinces too. In Quebec, the health minister was solely educated in business, and worked exclusively in accounting and finance before joining politics. Based on that, I doubt he ever set foot in a hospital (unless as a patient), yet is expected to be making decisions impacting thousands of physicians across dozens of specialties?

Similarly, if I was a large company's CEO, I wouldn't hire a doctor who worked in a hospital their whole life to become the CFO of the company, where they would need to publish quarterly reports, draft financial statements, and submit accounting documents to government agencies. Maybe they can delegate those tasks to actual accountants, but would their decisions make sense long term? If not, why are we okay with the reverse?

[–] jadero@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I remember as a kid in the 1960s having a mobile vaccination clinic show up in our small village in SK. They even had a fluoroscope as part of the TB screening program.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That was back when there was still many living but disabled polio patients ... so people had a visible reminder of the dangers.

Now we've become blind to what was (and could still be) all because of the collective stupidity we've decided is more important than fact.

[–] jadero@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

True enough. One of the teenagers on the school bus I rode required canes because of her bout with polio.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I've heard of larger workplaces having in-house vaccination clinics, but I think it's only if the employer asks. Maybe a little more outreach would help there.

We had vaccination clinics at the school when I was a student, for required immunizations like measles, polio, and so on. No reason (except personnel and funding shortages) why they couldn't do that for seasonal vaccines like flu and COVID.