Canada's Medical Decline

[Jotunn]

24/7 mobile paramedic team created to address drug crisis in downtown Winnipeg

Paramedic teams will soon be available around the clock to respond to overdose calls in Winnipeg's downtown area as a pilot project to address the ongoing toxic drug crisis, the Manitoba government says.

But Winnipeg's mayor wonders where those paramedics will come from when the city is already in short supply.

"In the past week alone, several ambulances were out of service on multiple days because we lacked the staff to operate them," Mayor Scott Gillingham said in a statement following the province's announcement on Tuesday.

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[Jotunn]

Headed to the ER? Here's why you could now wait more than 48 hours to be admitted

On Monday morning, Maureen Armstrong's elderly mother suffered a fall and was taken by ambulance to a Windsor, Ont., emergency room. There, she waited more than 48 hours to be admitted.

By the time Armstrong spoke with CBC News on Wednesday afternoon, her 81-year-old mother was still waiting in the hallway for a hospital bed.

"It's very noisy and volatile and there's a lot of patients that might be unruly and things that security guards are taking care of," Armstrong said. "It's not really a healthy environment to be in long term."

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[Jotunn]

Top physicians warned Winnipeg hospitals nearing 'disintegration' in March letter

Top Winnipeg doctors warned in a confidential letter in March that urgent care centres might have to close and another patient death was inevitable unless immediate changes were made.

They say physicians are "repeatedly forced to choose" who gets care first, knowing the condition of other patients might decline while they wait.

"We do not want to stand at the bedside of another person who deteriorated due to preventable delays and gaps in care — knowing their outcome would have been different," the letter, which was addressed to health-care leadership, said.

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[Jotunn]

Manitoba nurse admits to working ICU shift without proper training, certification

A Manitoba nurse has admitted to taking a shift at an intensive care unit in Brandon that she was unfit to do, and for misrepresenting her nursing experience in advertisements for her skin care business, a disciplinary panel says.

Eleonor Mascardo, who first became a registered nurse in Manitoba in 2022, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct to a College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba disciplinary panel earlier this year, a written decision dated June 24 says.

Mascardo admitted to accepting a shift at an intensive care unit at the Brandon Regional Health Centre in January 2024 through a nursing agency, despite not having the required training or skills, the decision says.

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[Jotunn]

1 in 10 emergency physicians leaving Canadian ERs, national survey suggests

Dr. Kaitlin Stockton has watched far too many patients suffer in overflowing emergency departments.

The Vancouver-based physician has given patients she just met a cancer diagnosis, with little privacy in the middle of a noisy room. She's cared for a man with an intracranial brain bleed on an ambulance stretcher in a hallway. And she can't shake the memory of one patient who had septic shock after spending eight hours in a waiting room, dangerously close to death.

Those kinds of harrowing experiences take a toll on emergency physicians, Stockton said, and there have been too many to count. At least five of her colleagues have left in the last few years.

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[Phoenix]

If memory serves, not that many years ago there was a contingent here in the U.S. that touted Canada's medical system as vastly superior to ours.

Haven't heard much from them lately.

[fluxmaster]

If memory serves, not that many years ago there was a contingent here in the U.S. that touted Canada's medical system as vastly superior to ours.

Haven't heard much from them lately.

Canada still has lower-priced prescription drugs, and many people in the United States living near the border cross into Canada to buy them there. Also, unlike in the United States, people in Canada rarely declare bankruptcy over medical debts.

The Vancouver-based physician has given patients she just met a cancer diagnosis, with little privacy in the middle of a noisy room.

Decades ago, while waiting in a doctor's office in New York, I watched an Indian doctor say to a woman in a loud voice that anyone in the room could hear, "Mrs. Jones, you have breast cancer!" She just stood there looking stunned. He didn't provide her with any privacy when telling her that.

[Phoenix]

Also, unlike in the United States, people in Canada rarely declare bankruptcy over medical debts. 

I suppose that's some small consolation while one is dying in the ER, waiting to see someone.  At least the estate will go intact to the heirs. 

[fluxmaster]

Also, unlike in the United States, people in Canada rarely declare bankruptcy over medical debts. 

I suppose that's some small consolation while one is dying in the ER, waiting to see someone.  At least the estate will go intact to the heirs. 

Bankruptcy is not the worst thing in the world. My point was that a "capitalist" health care system is not the ideal. A "socialist" system, such as Canada's, can work just fine if done properly, and if you have a homogenous population that doesn't abuse the system. Many Americans who come to Europe comment on how much better their health care system is than ours.

[Phoenix]

A "socialist" system, such as Canada's, can work just fine if done properly, and if you have a homogenous population that doesn't abuse the system. 

The "system" is the problem, but too complex a topic to get into here. It begins with people who don't take of themselves and ends with others profiting from those personal failings.  Yes, there is a better way, and the only nation which was trending in the right direction was destroyed 81 years ago.

Many Americans who come to Europe comment on how much better their health care system is than ours.

For now, perhaps, but Europe's demographics are changing.  It also hasn't hurt that they haven't had to pay for their own defense for over three-quarters of a century.  That leaves plenty of money for social spending.

Btw, I assume you are excluding Britain's NHS which is now every bit the nightmare Canada's is.

[Jotunn]

Winnipeg health authority asks long-term care facilities to make space for hospital patients

Winnipeg's health authority has asked a trio of long-term care facilities to make spaces available for some hospital patients as the local health-care system grapples with a surge in demand.

Riverview Health Centre, Deer Lodge Centre and Misericordia Health Centre have all been told to find temporary capacity to take on patients, a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CBC News. The patients are those who no longer need acute care but still require some level of care before they transition to other settings, the spokesperson said.

The WRHA "continues to experience exceptionally high demand for care across the health-care system," they said, and facilities across the region "have a shared responsibility to identify and use available capacity to help respond to periods of increased pressure."

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[Jotunn]

Recovery work continues after ransomware attack at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre

Manitoba's largest hospital is still working to recover from a cyberattack a week after first discovering it.

Shared Health says in an update that the ransomware has hit maintenance systems at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre and CancerCare Manitoba but that patient care is not affected.

The health authority says its investigation has found the attack has affected central monitoring of its heating, ventilation and cooling systems but that they are still operating and being monitored locally.

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