There’s a lot of waiting going on in our health care system as it tries to play catch-up, and doctors are calling on the province to open up capacity in our hospitals. The system is so under-utilized that doctors fear people may be paying the COVID price with their lives or, at least, life as they know.
However, Health Minister John Haggie says they’re aiming to have 85 per cent of services open by next Monday, and that they met with the NLMA last week.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association collected data from numerous physicians in most fields over the three-day period from June 20 to 22. The data which shows our system is operating way below normal volumes, around 30 to 60 per cent for most functions performed by physicians, but as low as 10 per cent for some.
NLMA President Dr. Charlene Fitzgerald says public statements about reopening services have been vague.
Dr. Paul Johnston, a urologist/oncologist at the Health Sciences Centre, says until this week he was being told who to operate on by personnel who were not surgeons.
He says many of his patients who were not urgent three and a half months ago are now approaching a dangerously collective wait time, Johnston, who worries that some may lose years off their life, wants to see the system restored back to normal volumes.
Johnston says we should not be saving our bullets while we wait for a second wave. He wants to see OR time opened up to let surgeons catch up as best they can. He worries that patients’ diagnoses now are more of a danger than COVID-19 can potentially be.
Meanwhile, PC Health Critic David Brazil says people have to know if they are three weeks, three months or a year out from knowing what the process will be. Brazil said on Open Line with Paddy Daly he is getting hundreds of calls to that effect.
Brazil says he has been asking but cannot get any answers from people in authority as to what approach they’re going to use, if they have an innovative approach or if they’re going to partner with the private sector.