CCBI News – Healthcare in Crisis: Province and Ottawa, Precautionary Principles, Children and the Vulnerable, Remembrance Day

Dear Friends of CCBI,

Healthcare in Crisis: Provinces and Ottawa (1)

“The crisis in health care is the backdrop to the federal-provincial meeting with hospitals overstretched across the country because of COVID-19, an alarming increase in pediatric admissions for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an early start to the flu season and chronic staff shortages. In an effort to make inroads on the staffing issue, the British Columbia government is increasing pay to family doctors as part of a package to recruit and retain general practitioners.”

The President of the Nurses’ Union, reported above, calls on the provinces and Ottawa to ‘stop squabbling’ and to resolve these problems, considering the large number of nurses who have left and are considering leaving. They are angry and dissatisfied over non-response from government, the dearth of salary increases, dealing with frustrated patients, long wait times, burn out, and more. If we think the quality of our health care is not being impeded by this crisis – think again or have a look in any ER. Nurses have long been treated in salary scales and other areas as less valuable than doctors, but our care is largely dependent on them: they are essential to health care and should be treated as such.

Healthcare in Crisis: Provinces and Ottawa (2)

An editorial in The Globe and Mail concludes: Canada has a health care crisis whose root cause is a leadership crisis. Pointing firmly to the provinces, the editorial states that the provinces are overdoing their demands, “…crying poor at a time when they are recording much lower than expected deficits, or even budget surpluses – in fact, the provinces are collectively in surplus.” This comes as a surprise to many who believe the federal government is depriving the provinces of needed subsidies for health care. According to The Globe, the provinces ad campaign ,”…suggested that federal funding is shrinking, when it’s not, and that as it shrinks, which it isn’t, doctors and nurses will ‘disappear.’ ”

Without the additional $28 billion asked for in July, the provinces say they cannot end the interminable wait times and shortages. Yet according to The Globe, some premiers have “…chosen to blow some of their windfalls on cheques to voters under the guise of inflation support (Quebec, Saskatchewan), or eliminating such things as car registration fees (Ontario).” Speaking for myself, I’d rather more money went to health care than not have to pay car registration fees, which we are so used to doing, mostly without complaint. That seems an empty gesture in light of deficits in other fiscal areas in the province.

This week Ottawa offered to increase the Canada Health Transfer, requesting that the provinces cooperate in forming a national health data system along with a human resources action plan. The provinces rejected the offer despite having cited the need for a hefty increase in July. The explanation was ‘wooly.’ As the editorial concluded: “Canada has a health care crisis whose root cause is a leadership crisis.” This is on our provincial representatives!

Precautionary Principles?

These are invoked in many disciplines and currently are being called on by many public health official and hospital administrators faced with crippling wait-times and even lack of medications to treat children, problematic in light of the surge in numbers of children with respiratory diseases. Primary care is lacking in many areas, coupled with a drastic shortage in the usual supply of over-the-counter children’s basic medicines, currently having to be sourced from the US and Australia. COVID-19 rules of basic hygiene are again being called for, including the wearing of masks in indoor places, such as in school. Perhaps we were overly hasty in discarding these rules, as some had forewarned, and trending medical opinion is moving towards urging the wearing of masks, short of mandates. It seems justified to call for such a basic and effective measure, yet also wise to avoid calling for another mandate which could cause another ‘perfect storm,’ with possible divisive effects in society.

Children and the Vulnerable

Last week a Yahoo report noted that the chief of staff at Ottawa’s children’s hospital spoke to Ottawa’s Board of Health Monday about the surge of pediatric cases at her hospital, pleading with the public to resume masking to protect children who currently are being sent to other hospitals for care. This request has been repeated by many physicians and chiefs of staff at hospitals all over the country, where thousands of adults and children with serious respiratory illnesses are flocking to ERs which cannot cope with the surge. Along with masking indoors, basic measures are again being called for: vaccines and boosters for COVID-19 and flu, staying home while sick and handwashing. Please see the short video below by Dr Teresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, asking for vigilance and caution given the surge in numbers of sick people. Basic common sense? Basic precautions? Protection of others?

The Yahoo report noted that there is good news from the World Health Organization (WHO) that the number of deaths from COVID-19 has dropped dramatically, but we need to remember that severe cases are still occurring in Canada, as in other countries, resulting in hospitalization primarily among the elderly and vulnerable. I was co-leading a discussion group on palliative care one evening this week with Shirley Christo at a church, when one of the group remarked that our responses to the pandemic and other situations so often come down to how we value our elders. They are not always seen as having value, contrary to Pope Francis’ frequent injunctions to respect and honour them. Advocating for better care at end-of-life and in the palliative stage seems to me to be a call to honour all aspects of the care of the elderly and vulnerable as part of loving one’s neighbour, which sometime means placing the common good above our individual likes and dislikes. The common good of public health implicitly rests on this foundational Christian principle of Catholic Social Teaching, sometimes downplayed by many in our own denomination.

Ottawa and provincial health ministers urged by nurse union head to stop ‘squabbling’ as they sit down for first meeting since 2018 – The Globe and Mail
Globe editorial: Memo to the provinces: Health care needs a bit more money – and a lot more reform – The Globe and Mail
For the 1st time in weeks, COVID trends aren’t rising in Ottawa (yahoo.com)
Coronavirus Update: WHO reports 90% drop in global COVID-19 deaths since February – The Globe and Mail
Dr Teresa Tam: Federal Health Officials provide Update on COVID-19, November 10, 2022: https://youtu.be/2UDuXVZLvSs

Pope Francis’ Intention for November

Children Who Suffer
We pray for children who are suffering, especially those who are homeless, orphans, and victims of war; may they be guaranteed access to education and the opportunity to experience family affection.

November 11, 2022

On this Day of Remembrance we remember and pray for all those who have died in war across the centuries; we pray for peace worldwide; we pray for reconciliation; we pray for those suffering longterm effects from conflict; we pray for hope for our world.

Moira and Bambi