Over the Canada Day weekend, two Ontario hospitals closed their emergency rooms due to staff shortages, while other hospitals across the country struggled with “bed congestion,” where there were more patients than beds to send them to. Dr. Lisa Salamon says the backlog of surgeries, along with increased demand from patients after two years of avoiding hospitals, is overwhelming hospitals. For example, at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, more than 300 people a day are seeking medical help, a 40 to 50 percent increase from the pre-pandemic period. “I see such astronomical volumes come through the emergency departments … 10 to 20 percent more than you know, even in peak flu season, never mind the summer in June and July, when we typically have lower volumes,” Salamon said. CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday. “It’s higher than we’ve ever seen before.” Omicron’s new BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants could cause a new wave of infections in the coming months, possibly increasing the number of hospitalizations, especially among unvaccinated and immunocompromised people, epidemiologists warn. Salamon says that without immediate government support, patients can expect to continue to see emergency room closures and long wait times for “quite a while.” “There are proposals for … independent ambulatory centers to help with delayed surgeries, but that will take some time and the government needs to act now,” he said. “We have a new government-elected health minister (in Ontario) and they really need to work with our organizations to solve this problem. You know, very quickly.” But as bad as wait times are right now, Salamon says they’re symptomatic of a deeper problem that’s systemwide across the country. “A lot of people don’t have family doctors, and that’s a huge problem,” he said. The Canadian Medical Association has also raised the issue and says cracks in Canada’s primary care system resulting from a lack of family doctors are leading to more patients seeking care in emergency rooms. “I think probably the No. 1 priority that the government needs to focus on is really trying to fix the shortage of family doctors. And also make sure that every Ontarian has a team with their family doctor to take care of their health.”
