Health workers in Canada are enjoying the painful blow of a third wave of punishment

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But many health workers in Canada have warned that some provincial governments have reopened too soon after a difficult post-Christmas wave.

“So we’re stuck where we have out-of-control cases, completely full hospitals, insufficient vaccine availability and months of difficult public health measures in front of us,” said Dr. Michael Warner, director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, he told CNN.

Provincial governments across the country are now relying on a third harmful wave of Covid-19, which could jeopardize the universal health care system that Canadians are so proud of.

From coast to coast, over thousands of miles and hundreds of hospitals, many provinces are now looking forward to increasing the number of cases. This is because concerns are spreading a more contagious virus to younger Canadians and sending more people to the hospital.

And nowhere in Canada is the situation of the hospital as critical as in Ontario, the country’s most populous province.

“The government did not listen to the scientists, did not listen to the epidemiologists, did not listen to other doctors besides their chief medical officer. but the virus is too strong, the variant is a different disease, “Warner said, before adding that his ICU was operating at 115% capacity on Friday.

Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford defended his actions on Friday when he announced new restrictions, including extending a residence order until at least mid-May, banning indoor and outdoor gatherings and restricting non-essential travel in and out. outside the province.

In a news briefing on Friday, Ford insisted that it had always acted on science, adding that in the case of recent growing admissions for critical care, it had developed stricter “second” public health policies that it had learned. a.

“Whatever we put into practice, it will take time to take effect. So now the trajectories of Covid growth are really ripe and I think the next two to three weeks for Ontario and Canada will be very good, very, tough, “said Dr. Fahad Razak, who treats coronavirus patients at St. Michael’s Hospital. from Toronto.

On Saturday, Ontario broke new records for both hospitalization and ICU hospitalizations. The modeling released on Friday by the provincial advisory commission of experts presented in detail a terrible snapshot of the crisis that is already unfolding in hospitals and how the situation is likely to worsen.

“You notice that our hospitals can no longer function normally – they break at the seams,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of scientific advisory services in Ontario. “We are setting up field hospitals and separating critically ill patients from their families by helicoptering them to the province for care. Our children’s hospitals now admit adults as patients. This has never happened in Ontario. It has never happened in Canada before. “

Brown was strikingly clear about a worst-case scenario: Ontario could be forced to care for the ration, especially for critical care places.

“There may not be the ability to put them in these types of beds,” Brown said.

Health workers are “beyond upset” about the situation, Warner said.

“We will be there, we will do everything we can, but I am trained to save people, not to use a checklist to decide whether people will live or die. “Warner said.

In most of Canada, epidemiological data have been alarming. The exception was the Atlantic provinces that created a balloon, with some of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in all of North America,

Health Canada reported a 35% increase in hospitalizations – and a 20% increase in ICU admissions across Canada in the week ending April 11th. The mortality trend is more worrying, with a 38% increase in deaths in the last week alone.

Dr. Ali Ghafouri, chief intensivist, second left, meets with his team in the intensive care unit at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, Tuesday, April 13, 2021.
Some public health professionals say many provinces have eased restrictions too quickly and too soon. In Ontario, too, many health care providers say that given their shortage in Canada, vaccines should have been allocated more quickly to marginalized communities.

In many of Canada’s largest cities, key factory workers, meat processing plants and distribution centers have suffered dangerous outbreaks.

Dozens of doctors in Ontario have called on social media for these workers to have safer working conditions and easy access to sick pay when they contract the virus or need to be tested for it.

Most provinces – including British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec – are starting to focus on these jobs and community hotspots with mobile testing and vaccination clinics.

However, some health workers are resigned that these programs have not been implemented quickly enough to relieve them and their patients of the ravages of a third wave, which is far worse than the first two.

“It’s clearly a crisis, we’re in the midst of a crisis right now. It’s not a week away – we’re in it right now,” Razak said.

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