The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being felt north of the border, especially in Ontario’s health care system.
The head of the Canadian Medical Association has warned that Canada’s health care system is collapsing, and many hospitals are facing what they call “crisis” staffing shortages.
The government of Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently acknowledged that more can be done to ease the pressure on the system, but no new solutions were put on the table.
Coming off a recent re-election win, the Ford government outlined its political agenda in the throne speech last week that opens a new session of the legislature.
Any critics and observers were anxious to hear what the government planned to do about what health care workers have called a crisis.
“Your government is actively engaging with health system partners to identify urgent actionable solutions and will implement whatever measures are needed to help ease immediate pressures,” said Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, who delivered the throne speech.
During the summer, many emergency rooms were closed down for days because of staffing shortages, and many of the nurses and support workers say they’re leaving because they’re burnt out.
“The competition is brutal,” said Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. “Either we will have the nurses here, or they will go somewhere else.”
One emergency room doctor, Nour Khatib, invited the premier and the health minister to visit her at work to see for themselves what’s going on.
“I just want you to see what we are seeing,” Khatib said. “I am taking out IVs. I am cleaning a room. I am bringing patients in. These are typically not things that the physician would do.”
However, the health minister Sylvia Jones insists that there is no crisis.
“It disturbs me, as I’m sure it does many, when they find that their local hospitals have to close for four hours, a shift, a period of time,” Jones said. “But to suggest that it is in crisis is completely inappropriate.”
Jones said what Ontario is facing is also what other provinces and other countries are facing, a shortage of health care workers. She also said the government is working to increase staffing in the health care system.
But it’s not just hospital emergency rooms that have become overburdened.
In Durham region, east of Toronto, for 20 minutes there was a Code Zero, meaning there were no free ambulances. Paramedics from other Toronto and the York region were forced to respond to three calls during that time.
Sara Labelle of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, disagrees with Jones’ statement that there is no crisis.
“It is years and years of underfunding of the health care system. It is cuts to beds and services and it is something the pandemic laid bare that we need more health professionals in the system and we can no longer function without significant investment in health care professionals,” Labelle said.
At least one ICU doctor has also leveled sharp criticism against the Ford government’s throne speech. Dr. Michael Garner, who works at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, said what the health minister said shows a disconnect between front line workers and politicians.
“So at the end of the day when you tell people who are working the front lines that what they’re experiencing isn’t happening, that’s gas lighting,” Garner said. “And that really adds to the moral distress and burnout of people who are working day in and day out to try and keep people healthy and keep people safe.”
Garner also said holding public sector wages to a 1% pay freeze is crushing nurses’ morale, and that it’s a sub-inflationary pay increase for people who have been working so hard for two-and-a-half years.
Also weighing in on the health care crisis is the Canadian Medical Association. Dr. Katherine Smart is the association’s president and said what’s coming is the collapse of the current health care system.
“Canadians value publicly funded universally available health care. but there is also responsibility to government to make sure that it’s being delivered. And right now what we have is hundreds of thousands of Canadians suffering in very real ways, in pain, unable to get services, in waiting lines, in emergency departments, unable to get a family doctor,” Smart said. “The system is collapsing around us. And I think what we’re not seeing is the political will to take that seriously.”
That’s again raised the specter of private health in Canada. While some medical professionals say it’s time for some creative solutions to address the crisis, others say privatization of the health care system is already taking place.
On Friday, Ford said he’s a strong believer in the public system, but when asked about further privatization, he said he plans to consult with experts about solutions.
He added that “everything is on the table.”
