Welcome to the end of days

This is it. We have sounded the alarm for years. The public briefly banged on pots to celebrate healthcare workers before ignoring the pandemic—the 6.59 million worldwide deaths to date, and the mass exodus of nurses and doctors. My local MP and MPP brag about going to barbecues. When my husband inquires what they're doing about our local hospital closures, they ignore him, and so does everyone else. My family doctor colleagues can't believe how fast their lists fill (36 patients showed up in the first hour!), how many medical records they're supposed to wade through, and how fast consults get dumped back to them. When we lose family doctors, people turn to the ER for care. Read: The sixth sense Our local ER now closes regularly on weekend nights, once on a Thursday night (but open Sunday night) and at least once both day and night Saturday and Sunday. More Ottawa area ERs have closed at night: Carleton Place, Almonte, Kemptville and even the Montfort. The Ottawa Hospital stays open 24/7. For now. It doesn't take a genius to see the domino effect of the peripheral hospitals closing temporarily, leading to permanent closures, overwhelming the tertiary hospitals until there is almost no care. Anyone I talk to in the trenches right now—PSW, secretary, pharmacist, nurse, lab tech, doctor, whoever—says it's terrible. If that's not the first word out of their mouth, they've usually either left direct health care for a desk job, or they've retired. Working short, doing doubles, "it's dangerous." You know the drill. Meanwhile, as Rome burns . . . Platitudes My own mother asked me what I was going on, and I texted her back. She replied something like: "But we're the best country in the world. Even better than the U.S." Yeah, platitudes make you feel better but don't help when you're slipping on vomit in the ER and there's no one to help you up or to clean it up, which was one story I heard. The public has no clue what's going on. Politicians post platitudes, and they nod their heads until they're the ones who need care. Lies When I wrote about closures in the Medical Post, the comments lit up. Not to say "Oh, how sad" or "We're running out of nurses too" or "What will happen to the patients?" but because I'd struck an anti-vaxxer nerve. Thanks to the people who tried to speak the voice of reason and quote articles. Normal people are getting out-shouted. I'll brave the haters again to say this: your "post-facts" and "misinformation" are lies and another sign of the end of days. You waste our time and energy as the system crumbles around us. Read: The end of the line We keep fighting the good fight. We keep trying. It's like that quote, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” I always knew that if the earth finally couldn't take the billions of humans laying waste it it, I would try to keep planting trees until my very last day. I worry about my friends, though. They're often exhausting themselves trying to prop the system up or. As the other popular saying goes: "You can't set yourself on fire to keep others warm." Goodbye, family doctors. "What else would they do?" asked one of my book club friends. I blinked at her. "Whatever they want. They could open a vein clinic, they could do psychotherapy, they're hospitalists, they do oncology, surgical assists, addiction medicine, palliative care . . . these are highly educated people with a lot of opportunities." I myself have considered coroner work and have been asked if I would join an advanced Echo session. (For those of you who don't know, I recommend https://www.echoontario.ca/#1 for free continuing medical education from the comfort of your own home.) So what can we do? Educate people To counter the lies above Lobby the politicians Try to make them accountable Continue whatever clinical care you can Without losing your own sanity and physical, emotional, or spiritual health Hug your loved ones Partner, parents, children, fur babies, beloved charities. Make time for them. And speaking of loved ones . . . Prioritize yourself Honestly, when the ER in Montreal got gridlocked, I thought patients would try to rush and get out to leave more time for others. That does happen sometimes, but you really notice the ones who want to take up MORE of your time because they've waited so long. Time to talk your ear off! Instead of fighting each patient, I decided to do what I can. "One patient at a time," the nurses told me. Can't fix it all. Eat. Drink. Go to the bathroom. Make sure you don't topple over while the ship lists from side to side. Remember the saying when COVID hit? "Who's the most important person in the room? I am." We've been told to be humble, that there's no hierarchy, we're all a team. But with no doctor and no nurse, there is no effective clinical care. So take care of yourself. Read: Are you caught in the perfect doctor trap?

Welcome to the end of days

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More Blog Posts in This Series

The ‘L’ Word

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Blog Author

Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes

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