COVID-19 cases continue to roll into the two Toronto-area hospitals where Eram Chhogala works as a trauma nurse. The numbers have dwindled to a stream instead of a wave, but each is a reminder of what the disease has done and could possibly still do.
鈥淧reviously, we had high numbers and waves where people came in heavy bottlenecks, and I鈥檓 just wondering if it鈥檚 going to be the same thing again,鈥� Chhogala said in a phone interview this week. 鈥淵ou know, it鈥檚 the wonder of, 鈥業s this going to happen again?鈥欌��
With mask mandates and other COVID-19 health restrictions lifting, many Canadians are finally able to envision a return to normal life. But, as they face burnout, staff shortages and daunting procedural backlogs, some health workers say it isn鈥檛 so easy to move on.
Chhogala says she understands people鈥檚 desire to return to a more normal life. But she also worries that health measures such as mask mandates are lifting too quickly, while there鈥檚 still so much to do to ensure the health system is ready for another wave.
鈥淎 lot of people are probably really excited that they can go back to normal again, but I just don鈥檛 think that we鈥檙e at that normal yet,鈥� she says.
Chhogala, 36, says no health worker has emerged unscathed from the pandemic.
They have had to watch wave after wave of very sick people struggle and die, she said. Many fell ill themselves. Some of her colleagues burned out and left the profession or plan to take early retirement. Later in the pandemic, health workers were harassed by anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters.
Perhaps most devastatingly, Chhogala鈥檚 own father died of COVID-19.
鈥淚t changed the way we think, feel and act,鈥� she says of the pandemic.
Last week, the Canadian Medical Association and some 40 organizations representing health workers called for urgent government action to address issues facing the ailing system.
鈥淲hile governments and Canadians are hoping to move past the pandemic, an exhausted, depleted health workforce is struggling to provide timely, necessary care to patients and make progress through a significant backlog of tests, surgeries and regular care,鈥� CMA president Katharine Smart said in a statement following an emergency meeting.
Among the challenges the system faces is a backlog of delayed surgeries and procedures that could take years to clear.
A report by the Ontario Medical Association last month found that the backlog in that province alone was more than one million surgeries. Manitoba鈥檚 delay had grown to over 161,000 diagnostic and surgical procedures as of mid-February, according to Doctors Manitoba, a group representing the province鈥檚 doctors.
In Quebec, hospitals across the province had to reduce surgeries by about 50 per cent at the height of the Omicron wave. Dr. Fran莽ois Marquis, the chief of intensive care at Montreal鈥檚 Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, says it will take months for the hospital to bring surgical waiting lists to their already daunting pre-pandemic levels.
Now that the number of COVID-19 patients has declined, officials are shifting to a different set of challenges: rebuilding the team, reopening beds and catching up on surgeries.
鈥淭he hospital is not working full speed,鈥� he said in a phone interview. 鈥淭here are not enough surgeries, there are not enough patients being admitted. You still have rooms that are closed because we don鈥檛 have enough nurses and (respiratory therapists).鈥�
Marquis says catching up is a challenge, given the number of nurses that have retired, left the field or transferred. But by working efficiently to streamline procedures, he鈥檚 happy to say that the hospital hasn鈥檛 cancelled a single surgery in recent weeks.
Despite rising COVID-19 cases in some parts of the world, Marquis says he isn鈥檛 worried about the spring or summer, when respiratory viruses typically subside. Fall could be 鈥渁 challenge,鈥� but he hopes that the public鈥檚 willingness to adopt masks and 鈥� hopefully 鈥� a vaccine that protects against both COVID-19 and the flu, could lessen the impact.
鈥淚鈥檓 naturally optimistic,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think you have to be to be a critical care specialist, because if you see everything on the dark side, you鈥檙e not going to survive very long in the field.鈥�
Naveed Hussain, a nurse at Montreal鈥檚 McGill University Health Centre, says the last two years have left him feeling exhausted and frustrated that so little seems to have changed in how governments approach health care.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a lot of reactionary measures, but we haven鈥檛 seen anything that鈥檚 been preventive, been put in place to be ready for the next wave or the next pandemic that might occur,鈥� he said.
Hussain helped train the patient attendants hired by the Quebec government in 2020 to work in long-term care homes and says some of them have already left the field due to a lack of support.
He said the government desperately needs to invest in both health-care infrastructure and its workers, through better training, mental health support and improved working conditions.
Like most of the population, he was happy to see restrictions ease and normal activities resume. But with cases rising in China and Europe, he can鈥檛 help but worry about what lies ahead.
鈥淵ou know that there鈥檚 something coming around the corner and, as health-care professionals, we know that鈥檚 the reality,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we know that we鈥檙e going to have to be prepared again for the fight, because this thing isn鈥檛 over yet.鈥�
鈥擬organ Lowrie, The Canadian Press
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