Five-year-old Rossy Hipkin was just one week away from a surgery that could have changed his life, according to his mom. That surgery might have, for the first time, allowed him to use his arms.
Then came the email: his Nov. 25 operation was cancelled because of COVID-19, a doctor wrote.
“It was hard. We’d been building him up, … telling him, ‘You’re going to get muscles’ and ‘You’re going to be able to use your arms,’ and things like that,” said Corina Heppner, Rossy’s mom.
“And then we have to say, ‘Well, you’re not going to get your muscle.’”
Facebook/Corina Heppner
Over a month later, Rossy still hasn’t had his surgery. And he’s not alone.
Hospitals across Canada have been forced to cancel and delay surgeries as COVID-19 cases fill up hospital beds and strain resources, according to doctors working on the front lines. There’s a risk that if Omicron cases keep trending upwards, emergency care — a hospital’s ability to quickly respond to everything from a sprained wrist to a heart attack — could be impacted too, according to Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
“We’re all afraid that our ability to continue to do that emergent care is really, really being taxed by the staff absences and of course, the large influx of patients with Omicron.”
What does an overwhelmed hospital look like?
When hospital capacity gets strained, one of the first actions hospitals can take is to cancel or delay what they describe as “non-urgent” surgeries. It’s a step that provinces like Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta have taken to help reckon with the Omicron wave.
But just because an operation isn’t seen as “urgent,” doesn’t mean it’s not essential for someone’s quality of life, according to medical experts. Elective surgery “simply means that the surgery can be scheduled in advance,” Johns Hopkins Medicine says, and it “does not always mean it is optional.”
“Even stuff that is deemed non-essential is still important,” said Dr. Christopher Labos, a cardiologist and epidemiologist.
“If you’re somebody who’s waiting for a hip replacement and that just keeps getting delayed and delayed and delayed, you’re going to be living with chronic pain for months, if not years.”
2:05 COVID-19: Overcapacity Quebec hospitals to transfer patients to CHSLDs
COVID-19: Overcapacity Quebec hospitals to transfer patients to CHSLDs
Over half a million fewer surgeries were performed across Canada during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years, according to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), published last month. The bulk of that decline happened in the early months of the pandemic.
But the latest wave is still having a real impact on non-urgent procedures, Evans said.
“A lot of things that people require for their health that may be not-urgent or not-emergent tend to be a little bit more difficult to accommodate when there are large numbers of patients in the hospital,” he explained.
That includes surgeries like Rossy’s bid to gain the use of his arms. Rossy suffers from Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, which limits his joints and range of motion. He can’t use his arms from the shoulder down, but surgery would have moved some muscle from his leg to his arm, and that could have helped him regain some movement.
“The hardest part is when you hear, ‘Well, it only affects the vulnerable’ or ‘Only the high risk and the vulnerable are dying,’” said Heppner, Rossy’s mom.
“To us, that sounds like you’re telling us that our kids don’t matter.”
As children like Rossy wait for non-urgent — but life-changing — surgery, doctors like Evans are worried that the rising Omicron cases could start to impact emergency medicine, too. Emergency care can be “as simple as a sprained ankle” or “complicated, like a heart attack or a stroke.”
“That’s the kind of care that you can’t defer,” Evans said.
“That person needs immediate attention.”
How is Omicron overwhelming hospitals?
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading fast around the world, including in Canada.
On Tuesday, Canada reported over 34,000 new COVID cases and 74 deaths, for a total of over 400,000 active cases. But a number of provinces have restricted their COVID-19 testing as they drown in demand, prompting the Public Health Agency of Canada to warn that daily case counts are likely underestimating the true burden of disease.
As of Jan. 3, 4,106 of these COVID-19 patients were reportedly being cared for in Canadian hospitals — more than double the 1,919 patients reported just one week prior on Dec. 27.
2:08 Omicron cases pushing Ontario hospitals to the brink on both capacity and staffing
Omicron cases pushing Ontario hospitals to the brink on both capacity and staffing
According to Health Canada, 640 of these patients were in intensive care units as of Jan. 3, while 274 were mechanically ventilated.
New data also indicates that 46 per cent of people currently in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19 were admitted for other reasons, meaning their COVID infection isn’t what put them in the hospital — it was just discovered when they arrived.
“It’s pretty clear that as hospitalizations go up and up and up, there will come a point where the hospital system becomes overwhelmed,” Labos said.
“We have to be aware of the fact that unless we can bend the curve in a significant way, we’re going to start to have a major issue in the very next little while.”
It’s not just hospital admissions, either. With the highly transmissible Omicron variant ripping through Canadian communities, health-care workers are getting sick, too.
“As health-care workers get sick and you have less personnel, sometimes you have to close beds simply because you don’t have the personnel to actually staff them,” Labos explained.
“So as more and more people are waiting for fewer and fewer beds that are available, that creates longer lines — and so you may end up waiting in the emergency room to get a bed for days, frankly.”
How do we prevent COVID from overwhelming hospitals?
The main thing Canadians can do to prevent COVID-19 from overwhelming hospitals right now is to follow public health advice: reduce their contacts and get vaccinated.
“If we can keep cases down, it means staffing levels can be maintained at hospitals. It means we will not be stressing out the hospitals as much with COVID admissions. That’s the big thing that we can do at the moment,” Evans said.
“Public health measures, getting third shots into people, are all important parts of it, as well as some of the measures that have been put into place to reduce social contact. And that’s working.”
Canadians can greatly reduce their risk of overwhelming the hospitals if they get their vaccines, according to government data. In its Tuesday epidemiological update, the government reported that compared to unvaccinated cases, fully vaccinated cases were “79 per cent less likely to be hospitalized” and “71 per cent less likely to die as a result of their illness.”
It’s something Dr. Michel Haddad, the chief of staff at Bluewater Health in Sarnia, has witnessed firsthand.
“About 60 per cent of our admitted hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, which is more than the provincial (rate) and 90 per cent of ICU are unvaccinated, which is also much more than the provincial (rate),” he said.
1:43 Alberta health minister says 15,000 surgeries delayed during 4th wave of COVID-19
Alberta health minister says 15,000 surgeries delayed during 4th wave of COVID-19 – Nov 4, 2021
Heppner, who is still waiting for her son’s surgery, says Canadians “shouldn’t wait until COVID affects them directly” before they take steps to protect others, like getting vaccinated or following public health advice.
“I feel like it’s the bare minimum that we can do to possibly help others,” Heppner said.
OTTAWA – The New Democrats confirmed Thursday they won’t help Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives topple the government next week, and intend to join the Bloc Québécois in blocking the Tories’ non-confidence motion.
The planned votes from the Bloc and the New Democrats eliminate the possibility of a snap election, buying the Liberals more time to govern after a raucous start to the fall sitting of Parliament.
Poilievre issued a challenge to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh earlier this week when he announced he will put forward a motion that simply states that the House has no confidence in the government or the prime minister.
If it were to pass, it would likely mean Canadians would be heading to the polls, but Singh said Thursday he’s not going to let Poilievre tell him what to do.
Voting against the Conservative motion doesn’t mean the NDP support the Liberals, said Singh, who pulled out of his political pact with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a few weeks ago.
“I stand by my words, Trudeau has let you down,” Singh said in the foyer outside of the House of Commons Thursday.
“Trudeau has let you down and does not deserve another chance.”
Canadians will have to make that choice at the ballot box, Singh said, but he will make a decision about whether to help trigger that election on a vote-by-vote basis in the House.
The Conservatives mocked the NDP during Question Period for saying they had “ripped up” the deal to support the Liberals, despite plans to vote to keep them in power.
Poilievre accused Singh of pretending to pull out of the deal to sway voters in a federal byelection in Winnipeg, where the NDP was defending its long-held seat against the Conservatives.
“Once the votes were counted, he betrayed them again. He’s a fake, a phoney and fraud. How can anyone ever believe what the sellout NDP leader says in the future?” Poilievre said during Question Period Thursday afternoon.
At some point after those comments, Singh stepped out from behind his desk in the House and a two-minute shouting match ensued between the two leaders and their MPs before the Speaker intervened.
Outside the House, Poilievre said he plans to put forward another non-confidence motion at the next opportunity.
“We want a carbon-tax election as soon as possible, so that we can axe Trudeau’s tax before he quadruples it to 61 cents a litre,” he said.
Liberal House leader Karina Gould says there is much work the government still needs to do, and that Singh has realized the consequences of potentially bringing down the government. She refused to take questions about whether her government will negotiate with opposition parties to ensure their support in future confidence motions.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet hasn’t ruled out voting no-confidence in the government the next time a motion is tabled.
“I never support Liberals. Help me God, I go against the Conservatives on a vote that is only about Pierre Poilievre and his huge ambition for himself,” Blanchet said Thursday.
“I support the interests of Quebecers, if those interests are also good for Canadians.”
A Bloc bill to increase pension cheques for seniors aged 65 to 74 is now at “the very centre of the survival of this government,” he said.
The Bloc needs a recommendation from a government minister to OK the cost and get the bill through the House.
The Bloc also wants to see more protections for supply management in the food sector in Canada and Quebec.
If the Liberals can’t deliver on those two things, they will fall, Blanchet said.
“This is what we call power,” he said.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand wouldn’t say whether the government would be willing to swallow the financial implications of the Bloc’s demands.
“We are focused at Treasury Board on ensuring prudent fiscal management,” she said Thursday.
“And at this time, our immediate focus is implementing the measures in budget 2024 that were announced earlier this year.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – Treasury Board President Anita Anand has been sworn in as federal transport minister at a ceremony at Rideau Hall, taking over a portfolio left vacant after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet and the Liberal caucus on Thursday.
Anand thanked Rodriguez for his contributions to the government and the country, saying she’s grateful for his guidance and friendship.
She sidestepped a question about the message it sends to have him leave the federal Liberal fold.
“That is a decision that he made independently, and I wish him well,” she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not present for the swearing-in ceremony, nor were any other members of the Liberal government.
The shakeup in cabinet comes just days after the Liberals lost a key seat in a Montreal byelection to the Bloc Québécois and amid renewed calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down and make way for a new leader.
Anand said she is not actively seeking leadership of the party, saying she is focused on her roles as minister and as MP.
“My view is that we are a team, and we are a team that has to keep delivering for our country,” she said.
The minority Liberal government is in a more challenging position in the House of Commons after the NDP ended a supply-and-confidence deal that provided parliamentary stability for more than two years.
Non-confidence votes are guaranteed to come from the Opposition Conservatives, who are eager to bring the government down.
On Thursday morning, Rodriguez made a symbolic walk over the Alexandra Bridge from Parliament Hill to Gatineau, Que., where he formally announced his plans to run for the Quebec Liberal party leadership.
He said he will now sit as an Independent member of Parliament, which will allow him to focus on his own priorities.
“I was defending the priorities of the government, and I did it in a very loyal way,” he said.
“It’s normal and it’s what I had to do. But now it’s more about my vision, the vision of the team that I’m building.”
Rodriguez said he will stay on as an MP until the Quebec Liberal leadership campaign officially launches in January.
He said that will “avoid a costly byelection a few weeks, or months, before a general election.”
The next federal election must be held by October 2025.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he will try to topple the government sooner than that, beginning with a non-confidence motion that is set to be debated Sept. 24 and voted on Sept. 25.
Poilievre has called on the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to support him, but both Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet have said they will not support the Conservatives.
Rodriguez said he doesn’t want a federal election right away and will vote against the non-confidence motion.
As for how he would vote on other matters before the House of Commons, “it would depend on the votes.”
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, a non-cabinet role Rodriguez held since 2019.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
— With files from Nojoud Al Mallees and Dylan Robertson
