Overview
- Hundreds of emergency and internal medicine physicians say hospitals are in disaster mode and want a provincial emergency declared to centralize command and relieve pressure.
- Doctors report patients waiting nearly 72 hours in emergency offload areas and multi-day holds for admission, with some facilities diverting external patients due to lack of capacity.
- A high-profile death is under review after Prashant Sreekumar, 44, died following an eight-hour wait at Grey Nuns on Dec. 22, and The Globe and Mail reported two other deaths in the ER that same day.
- The government says an emergency order would add nothing to current efforts and outlines actions including accelerated discharges and transfers, limits on non-essential inbound transfers, opening surge spaces, dedicating 336 seasonal beds, and longer-term plans for 1,000 additional acute-care beds.
- Physicians cite an intense flu surge layered on chronic constraints such as ALC patients, population growth, and recent restructuring into four agencies that they say has complicated coordination and left front-line staff unsure who is in charge.