By: Thomas I. Likness
EBC News Service

(Eagle News) — Canada’s largest province could find itself having to ration intensive medical care for Covid-19 patients because it doesn’t have enough ICU nurses says a critical care specialist in Toronto.

“What that means is we could imminently face a triage situation and this could happen very quickly,” Dr. Michael Warner said Saturday in a video message on Twitter. “We need ICU nurses here in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to care for the patients that are coming and the patients that we have already.”

He says Ontario has about 2,300 ICU beds but he says not all of them can be used because hospitals can’t staff them.

Warner would like to see the federal government coordinate the transfer of health care workers from less affected provinces to areas that hard hit by the pandemic’s third wave.

He cited the Atlantic provinces as a region that has Covid-19 well under control.

“When we find ourselves in a situation where they’re doing elective surgery in Halfiax and we’re triaging patients in Toronto, that just can’t happen,” said Warner. “Let’s start anticipating moving health care workers to the more affected regions right away.”

Warner says the province need to cooperate to remove barriers that would allow health care workers to practice their professions in other jurisdictions.
(Eagle News Service)