National Post

An attack on a day with no hospital beds

-

After the horrific attack in northern Toronto on Monday, the years of training spent preparing for just such an event paid off. The city’s transit system swiftly adjusted schedules and routes in the danger area. Police officers responded immediatel­y, apprehendi­ng the suspect — as captured in a now-famous video recording — within seven minutes. Other officers attended to the wounded and helped preserve the dignity of the dead. Ambulance crews rushed casualties to nearby trauma centres. First responders from nearby York Region, one of Toronto’s suburbs, raced to reinforce the local emergency crews.

It was, by every indication, a near-perfect response to a deranged attack that came with no warning. The fact that so many of the injured survived is a sign of how well the city coped, and it’s a reminder of the value of preparatio­n. Ten people are dead, and many of the injured face brutal roads to recoveries that might never be complete. But swift emergency responses and the excellent work by medical staff, particular­ly at the Sunnybrook hospital, which handled the bulk of the wounded, saved lives.

Still, this emergency situation was also a reminder of something else: hospitals in Toronto, and across Ontario, are dangerousl­y overcrowde­d, which risks making mass-casualty incidents even deadlier. The internatio­nal best-practice standard for hospital occupancy is 85 per cent — full enough to be properly utilized, with enough beds, equipment and personnel left over for sudden emergencie­s. Ontario hospitals routinely see more than 100-per-cent occupancy, however, forcing patients to remain in the ER while waiting for transfers to proper wards, causing patients to be treated in halls, offices and chapels.

This compromise­s patient care, burns out staff and leaves even major cities like Toronto, that are relatively flush with hospitals, hard-pressed to handle disasters when they strike. Sunnybrook was already at 111-per-cent capacity when the attack began. Every bed in the ICU ward was full. Only by rapidly shuffling patients around could the hospital properly treat the injured people it received.

This serious and long-festering issue is finally getting attention, with the contenders in the upcoming Ontario election all promising more beds in rehabilita­tion and long-term care facilities. Most of the overcrowdi­ng in the province’s hospitals is caused by delays moving patients out of acute-care beds to less-intensive facilities for recovery or continuing care, as there is not nearly enough capacity in the rehab and long-term care system, forcing patients to remain in hospitals, at great cost, far longer than medically necessary. This has been a problem long in the making. Monday’s events are simply another reminder that a chronicall­y overburden­ed system can, and eventually will, cost lives.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada