Canada's largest Catholic healthcare provider revises medical aid in dying policy

Edmonton - Covenant Health, the nation's largest catholic healthcare provider, has revised its policy to allow patients considering assisted death to have eligibility assessments and to sign documents in Covenant hospitals and care homes.Covenant Health runs 17 health facilities in Alberta, and has come under fire for its handling of a number of assisted dying cases. In one case, a woman with ALS was forced to have her eligibility assessment on the sidewalk outside the hospital and in another, a man was forced to sign his request form from a bus shelter.The Edmonton Journal also reported that some providers felt so hamstrung by the previous policy that, in an effort to facilitate the process for some patients, they skirted Covenant's policy."While Covenant Health does not participate in the provision of MAiD, we recognize that assessments of eligibility involving such medically fragile and vulnerable individuals contemplating MAiD, as well as other end of life options including palliative care, will happen in our facilities and in an appropriate clinical setting," it said in a release announcing the revisions."This refreshed policy removes confusion around that process and reflects the reality of current experience in caring for those seeking assessment."Now, doctors and nurse practitioners at Covenant can provide information about MAiD, but if the patient wants to follow through, they'll have to contact Alberta Health Services, or ask a Covenant employee to do so for them. Covenant employees won’t participate in those conversations—and patients will still have to be transferred off-site for the procedure—but will allow AHS workers on site, or set up a telehealth consultation if appropriate, the updated policy says.But there are still some concerns about offering appropriate and timely access for patients at these facilities.Paul Wallace, whose father Gerald Wallace had been a patient at Covenant Health, struggled to get an appointment with an AHS doctor after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was difficult to find a doctor who would travel to rural Camrose for the appointment, and one of the doctors told Wallace a video conference wouldn't be a "fair representation" of his father's current health—a conclusion the younger Wallace found "judgmental."Eventually, they moved him to a nearby extended care home but by the time a doctor was able to come and assess his father—about five weeks after he had first requested an assisted death—his condition had deteriorated severely and he wasn't sufficiently lucid to participate in the assessment. He died days later.Wallace later told CBC that one of his father's greatest fears was dying in exactly the way he did.In an interview with the Edmonton Journal, Covenant CEO Patrick Dumelie acknowledged that "there were a couple of instances where we failed the patient." And though the policy does refer to “timely” referrals and transfers, the Edmonton Journal reported that it does not specify how quickly staff must act when a patient requests them.When questioned about this, Dumelie said: “Our staff will respond immediately. There’s no reason we would put any delay or roadblock.”With files from the Edmonton Journal and CBC News

Canada's largest Catholic healthcare provider revises medical aid in dying policy

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