When Kaitlin Laverdure took her two-year-old daughter Everleigh to the emergency room in Pembroke, Ont., in May, she never dreamed she’d have to wait 10 hours, only to forget the doctors and staff. Unable to make an appointment with her family doctor, Laverdure had no choice but to take her little one to the ER after weeks of getting no treatment or answers about her daughter’s persistent hacking cough. He was worried it might be pneumonia.
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At the hospital, after the initial wait to get through triage, Laverdure and her daughter were ushered into a room and told to wait again. Story continues below ad At one point a doctor came in, but left shortly after, promising to return. He never did. Finally, a security guard walked by and noticed the mother and child. Two-year-old Everleigh had been sick for weeks with a hacking cough, her mother, Kaitlin Laverdure, worried she might have pneumonia. Photo submitted “Have they seen you yet?” asked the guard. “No. The doctor came and went, and I haven’t seen anyone since. It’s been hours,” replied Laverdure. It was now well past her little one’s bedtime.
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The guard went and found a doctor, who arrived another half hour later, apologizing. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “No one told me you were in this room. In fact, we forgot about you.” Story continues below ad 2:17 Ontario hospitals struggle with staffing pressures, long wait times Ontario hospitals struggle with staffing pressures, long wait times – June 16, 2022 Laverdure says the experience left her feeling like she couldn’t be bothered to seek personal medical care. “I’m quite shocked about it, actually,” she said. “I’m really sad that this is the world our children have to grow up in. It’s not like it was when we were growing up. And it’s very heartbreaking.” Laverdure is just one of millions of Canadians struggling to access medical care in a health system crippled by staff shortages and burnout.
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After dealing with the trauma of treating dying patients for more than two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers across the country are now dealing with an overflow of patients who delayed seeking medical care during lockdowns. Health workers are now so overworked, many are leaving the profession, leaving even more work for those who remain. Story continues below ad The situation is so dire that many are calling it a crisis. That’s how Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Nurses Association, describes it. “One of the two nurses tells us ‘I’m leaving.’ One in two. And 20 per cent of all health care workers in Canada are saying, ‘I’m retiring,’” Silas said. “We don’t have enough educated, experienced providers to deal with the demands of our health care system and our population… This has crisis proportions.” 5:45 Report Finds Healthcare Workers Wanting to Quit Due to COVID Burnout Report Finds Healthcare Workers Wanting to Quit Due to COVID Burnout – March 26, 2022 That’s why several of those on the front lines of health care are taking their message to premiers this week, where provincial and territorial leaders will gather for their first face-to-face meeting since 2019 due to the COVID pandemic -19.
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Story continues below ad The premiers plan to focus their discussions on health care, particularly their unified message to the federal government to increase federal health transfers to the provinces and territories. They want Ottawa to increase its share of total health spending to 35 per cent from 22 per cent. BC Premier John Horgan, who is chairing meetings in Victoria this week, says Premier Justin Trudeau promised all premiers he would discuss provincial demands for greater health transfers after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over. 19. British Columbia Premier John Horgan, left, and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney look on during a news conference after a meeting of the Federation Council, which includes all 13 provincial and territorial leaders, in Mississauga, Ont., on Monday, December 2, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Dennett That conversation and a national plan to tackle health funding have yet to happen, despite numerous calls and meetings between senior officials and cabinet ministers, Horgan says. As a result, he says he is “deeply disappointed” by this lack of progress in health care. “This is not about us joining the federal government,” he told Global News. Story continues below ad “We’re going to ask the federal government to work with us to implement the number one social program that separates Canadians from Americans. This thing we love… This accessible, publicly funded health care is what Canadians are working for.” Related News
Health workers are calling for a plan in the federal budget to manage the health care crisis
In order to meet the expectations of Canadians and address the many serious challenges in the system, more money is needed from Ottawa, Horgan says. “We need to have assurance from the federal government that it’s taking the dollars that provincial citizens are sending them and sending it back to us so that we can provide these services.”
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But Silas says she doesn’t want to see the premiers’ meeting simply focus on pressing the federal government for more dollars. The Canadian Nurses Association is among several organizations and individuals calling on them to develop a plan to address the crisis, including a national health human resources strategy. As part of that plan, they’d like to see the provinces work together on actions to help retain the existing workforce and recruit new professionals into the system. Many provinces already do this kind of work, but Silas says this has been a patchwork approach that often results in different provinces and territories competing with each other for doctors and other health professionals. Story continues below ad “We have to stop this vicious cycle of supply and demand,” Silas said. “The federal government needs to develop an agency that has the right data and the right strategies to help the province and the territories … and of course, attach it to the funding.”
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Better nurse-to-patient ratios, more strategically planned tuition funding and better working conditions for employees should be explored as part of that action plan, Silas said. But also, the provinces and Ottawa need to work together to improve mental health care, long-term care and primary care, such as access to family doctors — all of which will help keep patients out of the ER and into their communities, he said. . “We have to give hope to nurses, doctors, other health workers that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll fix it and you just have to stick with it.” Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), says she hopes premiers will collectively recognize the crisis in the health care system and commit to working with the federal government to find tangible solutions. Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, poses in an undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Canadian Medical Association, “The problems we’re seeing are very similar across the country, and I think there’s a real opportunity here for people to come together and try to solve some of these fundamental issues in our health care system,” Smart said. Story continues below ad Doctors hope the prime ministers will possibly look at redesigning primary care, which Smart says is an outdated model that doesn’t work. Almost five million Canadians do not have access to a family doctor, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.
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Medical staff burnout is also a huge issue that needs to be addressed, as are ways to recruit new providers to help ease staffing pressures, Smart said. One idea to address this would be to create a pan-Canadian licensure program for doctors and other health care workers to enable mobilization of the workforce where it is…
