An emergency-room physician is warning that the situation in Ontario’s health-care system is spiralling out of control, and urging elected leaders to consider reintroducing mask mandates.
“Every bed is occupied,” Dr. Kashif Pirzada said on CTV News Channel. “It’s causing immense strain on a system that’s already understaffed.”
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This comes as average wait times for patients are increasing, with data by Health Quality Ontario showing patients spent an average of 21.3 hours in an emergency room waiting to be admitted for care.
“We need to do things differently,” Pirzada warned. “That’s on the government to really be proactive and act on it.”
- Read more: Children’s hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ by RSV cases
As Ontario’s children’s hospitals struggle to handle a surge of new patients with viral infections, Pirzada says that’s putting more strain on emergency rooms and could lead to patients being triaged — a decision that will have impacts on adults.
“We will always take the child over an adult,” Pirzada cautioned. “That’s established protocol.”
Watch the full interview by clicking the video at the top of this article.
