Local hospitals overwhelmed
North Bay reporting wait times of over 15 hours. West Nipissing experiencing "large surge of new patients". Another COVID outbreak at Au Chateau.
Both the North Bay Regional Health Centre and the West Nipissing General Hospital have issued urgent pleas with the public.
Yesterday, the North Bay hospital noted that they are currently experiencing longer than normal wait times. As of Tuesday morning, the average wait time in North Bay was nearly 8 hours and the longest wait time was 15 hours and 34 minutes. In their release, the North Bay Hospital advised patients to consider “visiting other emergency departments in our district.”
This may have prompted an influx of traffic coming to Sturgeon Falls because this morning, the West Nipissing General Hospital followed suit. While the West Nipissing hospital does not publish wait times, they noted that they are “currently experiencing a large surge of new patients”. They advised patients to see their primary care providers if possible.
Hospital crowding crisis in Canada
According to a recent report published in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, an estimated 8,000 to 15,000 Canadians are dying each year as a result of hospital overcrowding.
While July has historically been a slower month for urgent care, the recent crisis in Canadian health care can likely be attributed to staff shortages that were exasperated throughout the COVID pandemic. Pandemic restrictions also delayed many critical health care appointments which experts have attributed to a surge in health care needs.
Another contributing factor is the lack of primary care options in Ontario which leads to many visiting emergency departments to address non-urgent issues. According to the Ontario College of Family Physicians, 2.3 million people in Ontario don’t have a family doctor. This is a problem that has been more obvious in Northern Ontario and towns like West Nipissing where walk-in-clinics are also scarce.
COVID Outbreaks at Au Chateau
Au Chateau Long-Term Care in Sturgeon Falls is also facing a surge of COVID this summer. This morning, the home declared it’s second COVID-19 outbreak in the last month. Once again general visitations are restricted.
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It looks like this Covid thing is becoming a permanent part of the landscape. Either replacing the seasonal flue or complementing it. In any case we've got to stop panicking every time new cases show up. Hospital masks are no solution to this. A few more things are now known about the virus.
First of all it does not ride tiny water droplets in our lungs or in the air. It is "aerosolized" (that is free floating in the air and not falling to earth with tiny water droplets. It doesn't go away and it concentrates indoors. There for more time outside and in sunshine is recommended.
Second, there are commonly available cheap anti-virals that will make a difference in severity and recurrence. Vitamin D at 5000 to 10000 IU (International Units) per day - lower in the summer, higher in the winter - along with zinc tablets. Both are available in any pharmacy. The residents and staff at care homes and hospitals should be given both daily.
Third, as with all bacterial and viral pathogens our immune systems adapt and the severity of the infections drop off over time.
Finally there is IVERMECTIN, one of the safest, most effective and most widely used anti-viral and anti-parasitic drugs in the world. In spite of what Health Canada and the US FDC have said about it during the pandemic.
https://ivermectinincanada.com/
Keep it on hand and use it as soon as symptoms show up.
The other issue here is the federal government's policy of massive immigration. The lack of housing and support facilities in the cities where most of the new immigrants were going are driving more of them into the small towns and outlying communities. Where of course there is now the same set of shortages. Even some of the numskulls on council are now trying to promote more immigration into WetNip without any thought to where they are going to live, or work, get medical treatment when they need it.
This is not good work.
I thought we were done with the covid bullshit!