| haxxiy said: Is the healthcare system really struggling that much, or are the provincial governments somewhat overreacting? Because I often hear the same thing being said in Australia, who like Canada didn't have truly big Covid waves before Omicron, but it strikes me as odd given how developed both countries are. I mean, New York City alone is almost half as populous as Toronto and is nearing ~ 4,000 hospitalizations, same as last winter, but last winter NYC was one of the least hit places in the US with little excess deaths. Just to give an idea how bad this thing truly used to be. But it was still being coped with (relatively decently?) by hospitals etc. |
We've been downsizing healthcare for decades
https://www.statista.com/statistics/831668/density-of-hospital-beds-canada/
And Ontario is the lowest in Canada
https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/health-2020
In comparison to other countries, Ontario’s rate of total hospital beds per 1,000 people is among the lowest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Ontario’s occupancy rate is the highest.
We're sitting at about 2.3 beds per 1,000, comparable to South Africa.
The other problem is a lot of the staff is burned out, sick or isolating. We can add more beds, but have no people to tend to them.
We're not in an emergency yet and still under the previous peak, but the graphs look quite scary without any signs of slowing down
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-ontario-jan-4-2022-hospitals-icus-1.6303596
https://www.oha.com/Bulletins/COVID-19%20Capacity%20Slides%2005%20Jan%202022.pdf
This thing is moving so fast, every single hour counts... 7 day averages are far too coarse to track this.
William Osler Health System, which oversees Brampton Civic and Etobicoke General hospitals, has initiated a "code orange" as COVID patients requiring care and staffing shortages put tremendous strain on its operations.
A code orange is typically declared "when demand outpaces capacity to ensure internal and external resources are deployed efficiently," the health system said in a news release. It is the first time William Osler has issued a code orange during the pandemic.
"We're seeing levels of illness within our health-care workforce higher than we've ever seen at this stage in the pandemic," said Dr. Andrew Healey, corporate chief of emergency medicine at William Osle.
Omicron is attacking the healthcare systems from both sides, staff shortages and admissions.
