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Province of Ontario is being killed off by its own government

Ontario Hospitals, Long-Term Care Homes In Scandalous Shape Long Before Pandemic Hit



Ontario Hospitals, Long-Term Care Homes In Scandalous Shape Long Before Pandemic HitThe pre-Covid-19 scandalous state of hospitals and long-term care homes in the Province of Ontario led to the utter devastation of the province that was, until not long ago, Canada’s economic engine. “Doctors in the Canadian province of Ontario may soon have to decide who can and cannot receive treatment in intensive care as the number of coronavirus infections sets records and patients are packed into hospitals still stretched from a December wave. (Reuters, April 12, 2021)

A September draft suggested doctors could withhold life-sustaining care from patients with a less than 20% chance of surviving 12 months

“Canada’s most populous province is canceling elective surgeries, admitting adults to a major children’s hospital and preparing field hospitals after the number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs jumped 31% to 612 in the week leading up to Sunday, according to data from the Ontario Hospital Association.” “Hospital care is publicly funded in Canada, generally free at the point of care for residents. But new hospital beds have not kept pace with population growth, and shortages of staff and space often emerge during bad flu seasons. “Ontario’s hospitals fared relatively well during the first wave of the pandemic last year, in part because the province quickly canceled elective surgeries.” “In a statement, the health ministry said Ontario has not activated the protocol. A September draft suggested doctors could withhold life-sustaining care from patients with a less than 20% chance of surviving 12 months. A final version has not been made public.”
Alarming news indeed that comes just one week after Ontario Premier Doug Ford put the entire province on Lockdown, Good Friday at midnight.

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The horror stories that we’re seeing in the hospital are like ones out of apocalyptic movies

“Ontario’s Science Advisory Table had been forecasting the surge for months, said member and critical care physician Laveena Munshi.(Reuters) “The horror stories that we’re seeing in the hospital are like ones out of apocalyptic movies,” she said. “They’re not supposed to be the reality we’re seeing one year into a pandemic.”
"Disease. Starvation. Staff walkouts. Since the pandemic started, more than 2,000 residents in Ontario’s seniors’ homes have been left to die alone and afraid. But the problem with our long-term care dates back more than 30 years. We should have seen this crisis coming. (HOUSES OF HORROR, Toronto Life, Nov. 11, 2020)
"There are currently 78,800 long-term beds in Ontario, the second fewest per capita (after Newfoundland and Labrador) in the country, and a third of these beds are C-beds. (There are also about 1,300 D-beds, which don’t even meet 1972 standards.) An eligible person or their family can choose to go on wait-lists for up to five long-term care homes. The median time it takes to get a bed currently is 161 days, and there are about 37,000 people on wait lists. Like other premiers before him, Doug Ford promised to build 30,000 new long-term beds over the next decade. But by last January, nearly two years into its mandate, the government had built only 34. Even if those beds had been built, however, growing demand will continue to outpace supply. Just to maintain the current wait-list number, the province will need to add 55,000 new beds to the system by 2033 on top of the ones that have already been promised. "No one in long-term care predicted the coronavirus, but everyone knew that the system could be devastated by something just like it. In early January, when Covid began its march across the globe, ravaging populations in many countries, experts watched with growing dread. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network, is blunt: “The ways we’ve organized and financed and staffed these homes—they have so many vulnerabilities. They were sitting ducks.”



Residents were malnourished and dehydrated, in some cases sleeping on mattresses that were soiled or on the floor

“Other factors worsened the situation in Ontario long-term care. Ontario’s homes tend to be older, with more residents sharing rooms, and thus sharing illnesses. And for the last two decades, comprehensive, unannounced inspections—an absolute necessity according to industry experts—have been inconsistent at best: the Ford government only conducted nine such inspections in 2019. (Toronto Life) “This horror became appallingly vivid in April, when a desperate and overwhelmed Ford government called the Canadian military for help. As part of the Canadian Armed Forces’ response to the pandemic, more than 1,600 soldiers were deployed to 54 long-term care homes in Quebec and Ontario, including seven homes in the GTA. To the public, it was like the Allies finally arriving at Auschwitz. Residents were malnourished and dehydrated, in some cases sleeping on mattresses that were soiled or on the floor. Dozens of residents had untreated wounds. Insect infestations were common. Staff, even some doctors, didn’t know how to properly use PPE."
“The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario told doctors last Thursday that the province was considering “enacting the critical care triage protocol,” something that was not done during earlier waves of the virus. Triage protocols help doctors decide who to treat in a crisis. (Reuters) “Everybody’s under extreme stress,” said Eddy Fan, an ICU doctor at Toronto’s University Health Network. He said no doctor wants to contemplate a triage protocol but there are only so many staff. “There’s going to be a breaking point, a point at which we can’t fill those gaps any longer.”


They’re a revenue-generating stream

…”In October, the Ford government introduced a bill, the Supporting Ontario’s Recovery Act, that critics said retroactively shielded both long-term care providers and the province from lawsuits. “They’re in partnership, these homes and the government,” Terence told me. “They’re a revenue-generating stream. The government writes the regulations, and the homes don’t follow them. The government says even though they may have been irresponsible, they’re still not accountable. Who’s responsible for this? You shake your head.”(Reuters)
"The Ontario government's health agency is telling hospitals across most of the province to stop performing all but emergency and life-saving surgeries because of the growing caseload of COVID-19 patients, CBC News has learned. (CBC, April 8, 2021)
“Non-emergency surgeries in Ontario are now on hold, despite a backlog of postponed surgeries from the past year approaching 250,000. Doctors are warning that in a matter of days, people may be turned away from hospitals altogether as COVID-19 overwhelms the system."
Meanwhile, with the bankruptcies, store closings and evictions in the midst of unprecedented profligate government spending that follow Ford’s third stay-at-home order, the future couldn’t possibly look any bleaker for Ontario. Don’t count on the media sending up a red flag warning that the Province of Ontario is being killed off by its own government.

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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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