Doctors, advocates repeat calls for policy on life-and-death decisions as COVID-19 strains Manitoba hospitals – CBC
Triage protocol ‘something that administrators are not really keen to look at,’ doctor says
Jan 20, 2022
Amid a crush of COVID-19 patients, staffing shortages and strained resources, what should happen if Manitoba hospital staff are forced to choose which patient receives life-saving care and which doesn’t?
It’s a question doctors and advocates for people with disabilities have been asking for months.
They say the need for a formal framework guiding those impossible decisions is even more pressing now, amid the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, which has put a record number of Manitobans in hospital and staff in isolation.
“It’s something that administrators are not really keen to look at,” said one doctor, who works in the Southern Health region.
“We kind of hope and pray that things will just work out and it will all be fine — and I do, too. But it’s just if we reach that critical situation, I would prefer to have a clear plan.”
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-covid-19-triage-protocol-1.6319245
