Her ordeal is just one example of how Canada’s health care system, overburdened and struggling amid worker shortages, is in desperate need of attention, experts say. When LeClair was struck by escalating pain earlier this month, she called the province’s virtual health line. “My signs and symptoms were symptoms of a possible bowel obstruction of some kind,” he told CTV News. But she was told it would be nine hours before she could speak to a nurse. She called 911 and waited more than two hours for an ambulance. None arrived. Finally, she was told that the wait to see an ER doctor was currently up to 16 hours. So she did the only thing she could – praying that her symptoms would subside as family members cared for her at home. Her experience is anything but unique. Across the country, Canadians are grappling with inflated hospital wait times, closed emergency departments, shrinking access to ambulances and long-term care, among other impacts, as the health care system falters. Experts say drastic measures must be taken to help health workers. “We don’t have enough doctors or nurses to be able to care for all Nova Scotians and Canadians who need access to care,” Dr. Leisha Hawker, president of Doctors Nova Scotia, told CTV News. Doctors and nurses from coast to coast say they can’t keep up with the demand. Morale is at an all-time low, according to Tim Guest, president of the Canadian Nurses Association. “I would say nurses are exhausted, burned out, demoralized,” she told CTV News. In BC, health experts cite burnout, low pay and mental health challenges as reasons fewer ambulances are on the road. In some places, they don’t exist. Troy Clifford, president of Ambulance Paramedics of BC, said a significant shortage of ambulances is now happening “every day of the week.” “It’s not just isolated for weekends and nights, and that really puts a strain on the system and affects our patients,” he told CTV News. In Ontario, the provincial government recently announced it would expand some surgeries to private clinics in an effort to address backlogs, a troubling move that experts worry could lead to increased privatization as a way to avoid real fixing the public health system. Ontario Nurses Assocation (ONA) president Kathryn Hoey said in a press release that the move to privatization “will only line the pockets of investors, nothing more.” He added: “The evidence is clear: privatizing health care delivers worse health outcomes for our patients and has much higher overheads that will be paid by taxpayers.” Earlier this month, ONA called for the repeal of the province’s Bill 124, stating that the elimination of salaries and benefits for nurses is exacerbating staff shortages by making it impossible to maintain nurses. In northern Manitoba, at the hospital in Lynn Lake, at least eight patients have been transported more than eight hours away to Flin Flon because of staff shortages that are forcing the closure of all long-term care beds. Families only received 24 hours notice. A sudden transfer like this means many families won’t be able to visit their loved ones, according to Lynn Lake Councilor Victoria Phillips. “There are a lot of families that live in the area that are elderly, they may not drive, they don’t have the means to have their own personal vehicle, so it’s really causing a lot of pain,” he said. One of these eight patients died two weeks later. “She would definitely be alone,” Phillips said. “I don’t think her family would be able to get there in time.” In a statement tonight, the president of the Canadian Medical Association pointed to decades of disconnected and silent decisions as reasons for the current state of the health care system. He says he hopes to see tangible solutions at meetings this week between the premiers of Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to resolve this crisis. An earlier statement from the CMA in July said increased federal funding was needed to tackle the complex, interwoven issues. “We encourage the federal government to meet quickly with the provinces and territories to resolve funding issues and develop real solutions to address systemic challenges that require immediate action,” the July statement said. Fortunately for LeClair, her symptoms subsided after more than a day of debilitating pain. But she is haunted by the idea that if things had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, help might not have been available. “That was the first time I thought I might die at home,” he said.
