When regulators threaten doctors for engaging in public debate, doctors go quiet and patients suffer
“Call for help.” This is one of the first rules in every advanced life-saving course. When you see someone collapse, rush over to assess and call for help. Raise the alarm. Let people know. Doctors and nurses do this all the time in hospitals across Canada. It would be professional misconduct to do otherwise. What…
A serious blow to our delusion we are better than Americans
When it comes to health care, Canadians only seem to care about one thing: Are we better than the United States? As long as we “beat” the U.S., we remain smug about our performance, although this attitude can be hard to square with the tens of thousands of Canadians who get quick access to top-level…
We cannot blame COVID-19 alone for the current LTC crisis, writes Shawn Whatley
Nursing homes struggled long before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Canada. Now, during the second wave, many front-line clinicians say our long-term care (LTC) system has all but collapsed. In the pre-COVID era, patients waited a median of 159 days to get a bed in Ontario, with some areas at 263 days. Thus, it was…