The COVID-19 pandemic

[ac3r]

Bernier and Hiller are truly Dumb and Dumber and these fools follow them around like lapdogs. The grift that keeps on grifting.

[jeffster]

Can you imagine having a heart attack, and calling 911, and being told, that no ambulance is available...you could wait half an hour?

How much does a half hour delay affect survivability in case of a heart attack?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6322717

Why is this acceptable to people?

It's not acceptable, but it's been going on for years. Usually it seems to occur during flu season (November to March).

2019

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...egion.html

2018

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/calls-for-a...-1.4203037

2017

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/they-re-goi...-1.3315009

2016

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...lines.html

Add that we have an aging population, and growing population, and funding issues from the previous McWynne gov't and current Ford government, this is what you end up with.

[ijmorlan]

Can you imagine having a heart attack, and calling 911, and being told, that no ambulance is available...you could wait half an hour?

How much does a half hour delay affect survivability in case of a heart attack?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6322717

Why is this acceptable to people?

And then start sending fire trucks out for ambulance calls because “they can get there faster”. As if the problem isn’t simply a lack of ambulance capacity and/or ER capacity. I thought I heard something about ambulance crews having to stand around at the hospital with patients who haven’t been fully admitted to the hospital until they’re officially handed off. Rules are more important than saving lives.

[danbrotherston]

Can you imagine having a heart attack, and calling 911, and being told, that no ambulance is available...you could wait half an hour?

How much does a half hour delay affect survivability in case of a heart attack?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6322717

Why is this acceptable to people?

And then start sending fire trucks out for ambulance calls because “they can get there faster”. As if the problem isn’t simply a lack of ambulance capacity and/or ER capacity. I thought I heard something about ambulance crews having to stand around at the hospital with patients who haven’t been fully admitted to the hospital until they’re officially handed off. Rules are more important than saving lives.

This has always been the case, but since our hospitals are full, sometimes paramedics are waiting up to 11 hours for a space in the hospital.

It's not that rules are more important than saving lives, it's pretty reasonable that paramedics cannot leave a patient until the hospital can take over care. Paramedics, unlike an ER is not in a position to adequately triage (that's what this is) they have no way of knowing that the 911 call they are missing is more important than the call they are on right now.

[tomh009]

Hospital triage nurses could also increase the priority for paramedic-delivered patients, to enable the paramedics to respond to the next call. I don't think it would make an appreciable difference to the walk-in patients' average wait time.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Lambton Public Health 450.5
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 440.2
• Peel Public Health 397.1
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 396.2
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 385.6
• Halton Region Public Health 383.1
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 362.8
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 356.7
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 355.0
• Brant County Health Unit 352.4
• Northwestern Health Unit 349.0

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 346.4

• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 319.1
• Niagara Region Public Health 313.0
• Algoma Public Health 305.9
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 305.0
• Porcupine Health Unit 298.4
• Durham Region Health Department 295.6
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 291.9
• York Region Public Health 277.1
• Southwestern Public Health 266.2
• Toronto Public Health 264.2
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 260.4
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 251.4
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 235.7
• Ottawa Public Health 227.4
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 212.5
• Huron Perth Public Health 208.2
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 204.2
• Peterborough Public Health 202.1
• Timiskaming Health Unit 195.8
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 170.9
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 170.6
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 156.6

• TOTAL ONTARIO 301.7

[jeffster]

Can you imagine having a heart attack, and calling 911, and being told, that no ambulance is available...you could wait half an hour?

How much does a half hour delay affect survivability in case of a heart attack?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6322717

Why is this acceptable to people?

And then start sending fire trucks out for ambulance calls because “they can get there faster”. As if the problem isn’t simply a lack of ambulance capacity and/or ER capacity. I thought I heard something about ambulance crews having to stand around at the hospital with patients who haven’t been fully admitted to the hospital until they’re officially handed off. Rules are more important than saving lives.

This is the problem.

There are solutions to this issue, but for whatever reason, and I don't want to say that there is some gaslighting going on here, but solutions aren't being found. Almost like it's intentional.

I do have family that work in the hospital and I heard things that made me sick -- that was specialty doctors, like oncologist, as well as the nurses that help them, are being sent home. Apparently this is widespread in Ontario, with doctors and nurses not working, due to Covid.

Not sure if it's for financial reasons -- too many doctors and nurses working with covid patients but not enough money? Or is it a bed shortage?

Speaking of beds, I found this article from 2011 -- it literally spelt out how Ontario was headed for disaster due to the amount of beds that had been closed (the NDP had closed the most number of beds from 1990-1995).

Almost 30,000 hospital beds have been closed in Ontario over the last 30 years -- 18,500 since 1990, the report said. The number of psychiatric and rehabilitation beds have increased, but those gains were offset by cuts to acute care and complex continuing care beds.

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/shortage-of...t-1.672996

From 1981 to 2011 you had PC's cutting beds, you had Liberals cutting beds, you had NDP cutting beds, you had PC's cutting beds again, then you had Liberals cutting beds again.

A loss of almost 19,000 beds is incredible, especially with a province that had 8.6 million people in 1981 and 12.8 million by 2011.

Also found this:

People are often surprised to learn Ontario has very low numbers of hospital beds, compared to countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The province has 2.3 beds per 1,000 people, fewer than 31 OECD counties. Only Mexico, Chile and New Zealand have fewer.

But provincial policy-makers don’t see that as a bad thing. On the contrary, it’s by design and it’s a point of pride, proof of a highly efficient system.

Ontario has purposely shrunk its hospital system. In 1990, there were 33,403 acute-care hospital beds, according to the OHA; today there are 18,571.

and this:

But there has been something different about this year’s surge in Ontario, according to numerous hospital CEOs interviewed by the Star — a handful on the record, but most off.

It was bigger than in years past and caught many by surprise. Patient capacity at about half of Ontario’s 145 hospital corporations exceeded 100 per cent and reached as high as 130 per cent, according to figures requested by the Star from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA).

You'd think this was taking place today -- but no, this is 2017.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017...paces.html

[nms]

Excellent digging to find those stories.  My understanding is that for the past 20-30 years, hospital construction and renovation has largely focused on the consolidation of existing beds into larger regional facilities while closing smaller ones, generally on a 1:1 ratio.  Governments and administrators of all stripes have done a very good job to make sure that there is no space for sudden patient surges into the hospital system.  How things have not collapsed by this point will be a mystery for the ages.

The only "new" beds built in that same 30-year time period is the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital next to Canada's Wonderland (fun fact: built on land purchased from Canada's Wonderland).  Just like most public infrastructure these days, building hospitals takes time**.  According to the Wikipedia article for the hospital, it was first proposed in 2004 (just after Dalton McGuinty brought the Liberals to power), groundbreaking took place in 2016 (Kathleen Wynne was leading the Liberals then), and the hospital was opened in 2021.  As they were in power at the time, the Ford PC Government took credit for the whole project.

I'm not sure where one might look to see what "new" beds are actually in the pipeline, but the Ontario government counted a total of 17,000 beds in system as of January 11, 2022. The same press release claimed that 3100 beds had been added to the health care system since March 2020.  Clearly there are differing definitions about what counts as a hospital bed.

** For comparison, what is now the Grand River Hospital was proposed in 1893 and opened in 1895, fully funded through public donations with a generous land donation of 95 acres from Joseph Seagram. I'm not sure if the current hospital site is actually a 95 acres, or whether it is closer to 9.5 acres and someone missed a decimal place on the Grand River Hospital Foundation page.

[clasher]

Hospital triage nurses could also increase the priority for paramedic-delivered patients, to enable the paramedics to respond to the next call. I don't think it would make an appreciable difference to the walk-in patients' average wait time.

I think that'd just lead to more people calling the ambulance to try and get priority over walk-ins... I imagine people already do this.

[panamaniac]

Hospital triage nurses could also increase the priority for paramedic-delivered patients, to enable the paramedics to respond to the next call. I don't think it would make an appreciable difference to the walk-in patients' average wait time.

I think that'd just lead to more people calling the ambulance to try and get priority over walk-ins... I imagine people already do this.

Yes, this already happens.

[jeffster]

Excellent digging to find those stories.  My understanding is that for the past 20-30 years, hospital construction and renovation has largely focused on the consolidation of existing beds into larger regional facilities while closing smaller ones, generally on a 1:1 ratio.  Governments and administrators of all stripes have done a very good job to make sure that there is no space for sudden patient surges into the hospital system.  How things have not collapsed by this point will be a mystery for the ages.

The only "new" beds built in that same 30-year time period is the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital next to Canada's Wonderland (fun fact: built on land purchased from Canada's Wonderland).  Just like most public infrastructure these days, building hospitals takes time**.  According to the Wikipedia article for the hospital, it was first proposed in 2004 (just after Dalton McGuinty brought the Liberals to power), groundbreaking took place in 2016 (Kathleen Wynne was leading the Liberals then), and the hospital was opened in 2021.  As they were in power at the time, the Ford PC Government took credit for the whole project.

I'm not sure where one might look to see what "new" beds are actually in the pipeline, but the Ontario government counted a total of 17,000 beds in system as of January 11, 2022. The same press release claimed that 3100 beds had been added to the health care system since March 2020.  Clearly there are differing definitions about what counts as a hospital bed.

** For comparison, what is now the Grand River Hospital was proposed in 1893 and opened in 1895, fully funded through public donations with a generous land donation of 95 acres from Joseph Seagram. I'm not sure if the current hospital site is actually a 95 acres, or whether it is closer to 9.5 acres and someone missed a decimal place on the Grand River Hospital Foundation page.

Currently the site is about 14+ acres. So not likely a typo, I believe the property was larger and some it was sold over time. Mind you, GRH has some property, I believe, in and around that area. So quite possibly they have more than 14 acres, but perhaps the rest was sold overtime, to help fund the hospital and services.

[plam]

To be fair, the number of overnight stays in hospital is far lower now-ish (COVID excepted) than it was 20 years ago; a lot of procedures used to be overnight stays and are now day procedures. Which is generally better when it works, not just for financial reasons. So comparing raw numbers isn't super accurate.

[jeffster]

To be fair, the number of overnight stays in hospital is far lower now-ish (COVID excepted) than it was 20 years ago; a lot of procedures used to be overnight stays and are now day procedures. Which is generally better when it works, not just for financial reasons. So comparing raw numbers isn't super accurate.

There is truth to that, sometimes referred to as efficiency. Example, surgery is no longer considered a condition, nor is pregnancy. Bloodless surgery is more common now, which also reduces the amount of required time that a patient must stay in the hospital.

Even overnight stays 'in the covid era' are less than before (2019 had more overnight stays than 2020).

[ac3r]

'This is not the time to be weak:' Liberals call for mandatory proof of vaccination at LCBO and cannabis stores: https://www.cp24.com/news/this-is-not-th...-1.5753618

LOL. How many people have got Covid-19 and died just going to the liquor store? What a joke these restrictions have become. This is the sort of nonsense you get when you let politicians attempt to dictate the best public health practices.

[tomh009]

'This is not the time to be weak:' Liberals call for mandatory proof of vaccination at LCBO and cannabis stores: https://www.cp24.com/news/this-is-not-th...-1.5753618

LOL. How many people have got Covid-19 and died just going to the liquor store? What a joke these restrictions have become. This is the sort of nonsense you get when you let politicians attempt to dictate the best public health practices.

It's got nothing to do with getting COVID-19 at a liquor store, and everything to do with using liquor store access to convince people to get vaccinated.