Canadian health authorities have been forced in recent weeks to limit the hours of emergency services at hospitals and clinics due to an influx of patients and a shortage of staff. The situation is linked to a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in adults and children as well as the performance of deprogrammed procedures at the height of the pandemic, when many medical personnel are on sick leave for burn- out or other ailments, say doctors.<\/p>\n
Hospital corridors and clinic waiting rooms are crowded, care is delivered hours late, and the occupancy rate in children’s hospitals exceeds 100%. Another consequence of this situation: the debate on the systemic problems of the health system, funded by the government, has been revived. The emergency department of Perth hospital in south-eastern Ontario closed its doors on Saturday for six days due to an outbreak of COVID-19 that affected its staff. While it is common in small towns across Canada for hospitals to sometimes reduce their opening hours, it is rare for regional health hubs to do the same.<\/p>\n
The Ontario Ministry of Health would not say how many hospitals in the country’s most populous province are affected by partial or temporary closures. He said he had taken steps to respond to the situation. “Sometimes hospitals have to make the difficult decision to close their emergency department temporarily so that operations can continue in the rest of the departments,” a ministry spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
In Quebec, New Brunswick and Manitoba, hospitals have also temporarily closed services, or reduced their hours, for periods ranging from a fortnight to several months, according to press releases from hospitals.<\/p>\n
Children are hard hit by the precarious situation of the health system, some of them who had never been exposed to viruses in the past having succumbed to illnesses during the spring due to the lifting of health restrictions in the face of the COVID-19, like wearing a mask. For some, the underfunding of the health system dates back to the 1990s, when the federal government cut spending in the sector in order to control the public debt. For others, the cause of the problem is federal funding itself, suggesting the need to move towards a private health system model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"