For the past few days, the Quebec health network has chosen to postpone “non-emergency” operations in order to treat the imposing wave of patients with COVID-19.
You read that right: current shedding is a choice. The idea that it is a simple procedure and that the health network cannot do otherwise is inaccurate.
Before going any further, let us mention that we in no way doubt the good faith and efforts of caregivers, professionals and decision-makers. They all work in an extremely difficult environment. Outline workers need to focus on care and administrators need to make decisions for which there are often no right answers.
Nevertheless, reflection is necessary. Exceeding the care capacity of our system raises important ethical questions. “Who should we treat first? Current load shedding is our system’s answer to this question.
However, the question should rather be: “Who do we choose to heal first?” So the answer becomes a choice. The choice is social, systemic.
And this choice is made in its context. According to Public Health, 50% of intensive care beds are occupied by unvaccinated people.
Currently, diagnoses, operations and treatments for people with cancer are dangerously, and perhaps even fatally, postponed.
Are you frustrated with having to comply with a vaccination passport, the curfew or depriving yourself of a dinner with friends? Imagine the frustration and anguish that shedding generates in people with cancer.
People affected by cancer, exceptional fighters and fighters, want to be heard today. In the medium term, load shedding is no longer an option for us. The approach needs to be reversed, then explained transparently and diligently. People affected by cancer, having scrupulously followed public health directives, must be diagnosed, operated on and treated as a priority, as soon as possible.
Our intervention is certainly imbued with emotion, but we insist. Where is the justice in postponing cancer treatments in order to prioritize patients who have not fulfilled their part of the social contract? Objectively, the issue must at least be addressed by the authorities.
The medical teams are exhausted. People with cancer or other serious illnesses are worried about their lives. But they shouldn’t have to bear the heavy burden of our helpless health care system, not for a moment.
We are at the fateful hour when decisions must be coherent and visionary. In the long term, we advocate for an approach that puts the interests of public health and social justice first. We must once and for all increase the capacity of our public network. We need to take a proactive approach, rather than the current reactive approach, to building a resilient healthcare system that can weather future storms. The state of health emergency must be used for this, above all else.
And since we are talking about vision, we demand the unveiling of the “plan” to counter the consequences of load shedding. A possible return of the pandemic to the Quebec health system must be considered. It is intolerable that the delays in care are still accumulating. We have been waiting for this plan since the Minister’s announcement in June 2021.
In the shorter term, however, we want to call on people who are still hesitant to get vaccinated to do so as soon as possible. Not for the government, but for us, the people who have to fight serious illnesses, to ensure that we have the health network at our full disposal. It’s a small gesture that could tip the scales in favor of our struggle. Thank you for your solidarity, and thank you to those who will answer the call.