Let us celebrate gratitude for the good, humility for the bad, and thankfulness that failures were not worse
Celebration of anything or anyone requires one of two mindsets. The first mindset is make-believe. We pretend something is what it is not. We sing, dance, and light fireworks in false celebration. Eulogies about abusive drunks being great family men call us to false celebration. We pretend the bad did not exist, and we focus…
How long will Canadian patients put up with substandard treatment?
As the third wave of the COVID recedes in Canada, watch for the resumption of an old debate about the impact on patients of delayed procedures and treatments. On one side, hospitals, medical associations, and labour unions will point to the many patients who endured cancelled care. On the other, with apologies to Burke, economists…
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…