Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: September 03, 2021 04:36PM
From CBC, July 14:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-ers-on-verge-of-breakdown-1.6099487"A growing number of emergency rooms in Quebec are struggling to care for patients as hospitals deal with severe staffing shortages caused by nurses fed up with pandemic working conditions.
"Across the province, several ERs have been forced to curtail their opening hours, doctors are warning about the potential for medical errors and patients are facing longer wait times.
"Doctors working for the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal say beleaguered hospital ERs in Montreal's east end are on the brink of collapse. They warned of a possible closure of services in an open letter addressed to the Ministry of Health on Monday.
"We see the situation is getting worse and worse over time, and we're on the verge of a breakdown," said Dr. Bernard Mathieu, an emergency physician at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, who penned the letter."
From CBC, September 2:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/paul-olszynski-emergency-room-doctor-hospital-covid-19-hospital-burnout-saskatchewan-criss-1.6161274"Dr. Paul Olszynski has been working in Saskatoon emergency rooms for 14 years and he's never seen the system under as much strain as it is right now under the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's a chance of a bad outcome if we don't do something now," he said.
"On Wednesday, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health reported 321 new cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths from the disease.
"There are 134 infected people in hospital across the province, including 30 people under intensive care — the highest number of concurrent ICU patients since early May during the pandemic's third wave.
"Unequivocally, we are under significant strain," he said, noting that it's a combination of non-COVID and COVID patients that's causing so much pressure, resulting in staff burnout.
"People just unable to pick up shifts, take on more shifts, and in some cases, people pulling back a little bit because they don't feel like they're working in a safe environment or don't think they can provide the care that they think they should be able to," Olsynzski said.
"Then there's the added challenge of a virus running "completely unchecked" among about 300,000 unvaccinated people, Olsynzski said.
"That's essentially like unleashing the virus on all of Saskatoon."
"...Olszynski began by outlining how he treats a wide spectrum of COVID-19 patients: from people who are only showing mild symptoms but come to emergency rooms anxious about it, to "people really at a critical stage of illness presenting after maybe being home sick for some time and actually needing immediate lifesaving care."
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There are scads of similar articles detailing the stress placed on ER and ICU units as well as on the medical and nursing and other staff members.
(If you think the actual case numbers don't sound overwhelming, they're from a moment in time but they indicate a steady trend of increasing numbers, plus compared to the average numbers prior to COVID they're often much higher).
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2021 04:44PM by Nightingale.