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 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
11 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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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 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?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 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.