{"id":106964,"date":"2025-08-30T04:04:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/106964\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T04:04:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:04:35","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-aug-27-give-us-the-resources-to-meet-the-demand-for-emergency-care-and-save-as-many-patients-as-we-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/106964\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the editor, Aug. 27: \u2018Give us the resources to meet the demand for emergency care and \u2026 save as many patients as we can\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

GJ and Hazel van der Werken sit on a bench made in memory their 16-year-old son, Finlay, who died following a visit to the ER at Trafalgar Memorial Hospital in Oakville, Ont.Nick Iwanyshyn\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Emergency crisis<\/p>\n

Re \u201cAn Ontario teen died after waiting in agony for hours at an ER. Now, his family wants an inquest\u201d<\/a> (Aug. 20): The death of a 16-year-old after waiting hours in an Ontario emergency room is a devastating reminder of what happens when situational awareness breaks down. Despite being triaged as a \u201cLevel 2\u2033 patient requiring urgent care, he lay in a hallway unseen.<\/p>\n

Emergency departments should operate like disaster zones with clear leadership, real-time oversight and structured handovers. A simple whiteboard listing Level 1 and 2 patients could have saved his life. Instead, there seemed to be no system and no one in charge.<\/p>\n

I see this as not just a medical error, but a failure of organization. Until hospitals treat emergency care as a dynamic, high-risk environment requiring constant vigilance, more lives may be lost unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

Tom Gray Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Que.<\/p>\n

The emergency medicine community has done the research, appealed to the public and pleaded with policymakers: If emergency departments are crowded with admitted patients and wait times balloon, patients will die. Sometimes, it is obvious that delays in care are catastrophic. Other times, families may not even realize how much delays harm loved ones.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, politicians keep arguing, contrary to the evidence, that the problem is too many patients going to emergency unnecessarily. Give us the resources to meet the demand for emergency care and move admitted patients upstairs. <\/p>\n

Only then would we have a chance to save as many patients as we can.<\/p>\n

James Worrall MD, emergency physician; Ottawa<\/p>\n

Private practice<\/p>\n

Re \u201cDr. Brian Day predicted the health care mess we\u2019re in today\u201d<\/a> (Aug. 20): The first alarming statistic grabs our attention: Over the past six years, almost 142,000 people left a B.C. emergency room without being seen by a doctor or nurse. Then, oddly, Brian Day\u2019s prescription follows. <\/p>\n

Is Dr. Day proposing to set up fully staffed emergency rooms around the province to alleviate this problem? No, he wants to operate private, for-profit surgical clinics that will likely do next to nothing for emergency-room overcrowding. <\/p>\n

The actual problem I find with emergency rooms is moving admitted patients to hospital beds. Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicates that in 2000, Canada had 3.77 hospital beds per 1,000 people; by 2022, that has dropped to 2.53. <\/p>\n

In addition to more hospital beds, provinces should fund other resources such as accessible, high-quality primary care, long-term care and mental health resources. Let\u2019s not waste our time with Dr. Day. <\/p>\n

Kate Lawson Kitchener, Ont.<\/p>\n

Although I have not yet read Brian Day\u2019s autobiography, I believe it is justified to ask a simple question. <\/p>\n

Private health care has been permitted in Quebec since 2005. According to Dr. Day, this is the solution to the current health care mess. <\/p>\n

If this is the case, why is Quebec, where this solution has existed for 20 years, one of the worst places in Canada in terms of access to health care? And why has this access steadily deteriorated over the past 20 years? <\/p>\n

Could the answer be that private health care is not a solution?<\/p>\n

Yvan Giroux Gatineau, Que.<\/p>\n

With all due respect, Brian Day was not the only one predicting the current expensive and inefficient mess we all pay for. <\/p>\n

Oh, and we already have a hybrid system that is not working out, within which expanding private coverage and clinics would make matters worse for those who cannot afford it.<\/p>\n

For further reading, I would suggest Jane Philpott\u2019s 2024 book Health for All: A Doctor\u2019s Prescription for a Healthier Canada.<\/p>\n

David Hughes Glass MD; Saugeen Shores, Ont.<\/p>\n

Money talks <\/p>\n

Re \u201cCarney\u2019s tariff retreat is defensible\u201d<\/a> (Opinion, Aug. 26) and \u201cCarney had no choice but to go \u2018elbows down\u2019\u201d<\/a> (ROB, Aug. 26): Robyn Urback and Tony Keller are undoubtedly right. Prime Minister Mark Carney has limited options in dealing with Donald Trump at the moment, but Canadian consumers can keep their elbows up. I am avoiding American products whenever possible and certainly won\u2019t be visiting the United States before 2029. When shopping for a new car, I took GM and Ford off my list and bought a Lexus made in Cambridge, Ont.<\/p>\n

Canada can\u2019t win a trade war with the U.S., but if Canadian consumers keep their elbows up we can give Carney some cards to hold in the upcoming United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiations.<\/p>\n

T.S. Ramsay Guelph, Ont. <\/p>\n

For whom the road tolls<\/p>\n

Re \u201cCarney\u2019s cut to PEI tolls is a bridge too far\u201d<\/a> (Editorial, Aug. 21): I beg to differ. <\/p>\n

The nation-building Trans-Canada Highway system had a built-in incentive for provinces responsible for construction: The federal government would cover the cost of the most expensive link (and possible impediment to the project\u2019s success).<\/p>\n

In Montreal, that was the hugely expensive Ville-Marie tunnel under the city centre. I worked on that project as a young engineer. No tolls were applied. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m all in favour of \u201cuser-pay,\u201d but let\u2019s apply it fairly in all jurisdictions \u2013 or not at all.<\/p>\n

Patrick Martin P.Eng; Westmount, Que.<\/p>\n

The purpose of tolls on transportation facilities such as bridges, expressways and ferries is to recover capital and operating costs more than to influence volume.<\/p>\n

Both the federal and provincial governments achieve this purpose though motor fuel taxes at the pump. So an alternative to tolls and ferry fares is for both levels of government to increase motor fuel excise taxes.<\/p>\n

D.B. Wilson Port Moody, B.C.<\/p>\n

As a former resident of Prince Edward Island, I was happy to see the announced cuts to bridge and ferry tolls, especially for families living off-island who make regular trips back and forth.<\/p>\n

Now, as a resident of Vancouver Island, I\u2019m distressed that my trans-Canada route to the mainland for a six-hour engagement in Vancouver will cost $210. In comparison, a bridge too far.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for \u201cuser-pay,\u201d but fair is fair and this isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Jim Palmateer Victoria<\/p>\n

ABCs of democracy<\/p>\n

Re \u201cCivic education is the answer to extremism, including within our military\u201c<\/a> (Opinion, Aug. 25): If only every high school student in Canada had a social studies teacher like Stephen Axworthy. His call for the restoration of civil education in the Canadian curriculum is timely. One only has to look south to see what happens when an ill-informed populace allows for the nearly complete erosion of education in the basic history and structures of democracy. Three cheers for social studies teachers.<\/p>\n

Barbara Jenks Victoria<\/p>\n

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: GJ and Hazel van der Werken sit on a bench made in memory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,60895,2922,1399],"class_list":["post-106964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-noastack","tag-nopolly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}