MY TAKE

HOW DID WE COME TO THIS? 

“Canada recently dropped in stature, earning the dismal rank of 48th on a global child rights index, and we are currently in an unprecedented crisis in which kids’ lives are on the line.” Image credit: FAIZAN MEER on Pexels.

 By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

 Pankaj Mehra recently reached out to family and friends, seeking their assistance in circulating an important message .

He shared an email he sent to his local area councillors, MPP, Member of Parliament for Oakville Anita Anand, and the Office of the Prime Minister, in which he wrote:

“I am writing to you as a grandparent and a concerned citizen to (re-) draw your attention to the dismal state of affairs we have brought upon ourselves by ignoring our national health – especially children’s and senior’s health-related matters. You will no doubt have already seen the press release with the Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Premiers signed by eminent, highly competent health providers and other medical professionals.

“This is an issue that needs to be addressed efficiently and immediately in a bipartisan manner. It is requested, indeed expected, that you use the power vested in you by your local constituents and Canadians across the country to come together for an early resolution.”

Post-retirement, the former senior banker remains very active in the community. He is senior fellow and Governing Board member, Massey College (University of Toronto); President, Board of Directors, Sampradaya Dance Creations; and Director, Halton Multicultural Council (HMC). He is also, full disclosure, a dear friend.

The link he provided in his mail leads to the open letter by Moms, Grandmoms, and Caregivers for Kids, sent in November 2022.

Excerpts, below:

“As mothers, grandmothers, and leaders across this country, we are calling on you to take action for the sake of kids in Canada.

“Canada recently dropped in stature, earning the dismal rank of 48th on a global child rights index, and we are currently in an unprecedented crisis in which kids’ lives are on the line.

“The stories of parents and grandparents are flooding social media as they desperately try to ease the pain of the child they love and keep them alive. The ‘tripledemic’ of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 is causing incalculable suffering.

“Despite the good news children’s Tylenol and Advil are coming, kids can’t breathe. When you have helplessly watched an infant struggle to take a single breath, sat with us in an emergency room for 15 hours, or been sent hundreds of kilometers away from home because there are no cribs left at the children’s hospital, you would understand just how close we are to the breaking point. Children’s life-altering surgeries are being cancelled, and they’re being put on waitlists which further compound their distress.”

Heart-rending as the appeals are, they are not new. Physicians have been cautioning against an impending crisis for weeks. Paediatricians and concerned parents have been urging for an all-out effort to vaccinate children against influenza and COVID-19 and are stressing the importance of masks in crowded indoor spaces.

Grant’s Desi Achiever Dr Anna Banerji (December 2022) described RSV as a “common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, with most people recovering in a week or two, but it can be serious, specially for infants and older adults”.

The good news is that by August 2022, most children and adults younger than 60 years in Canada had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 through a combination of vaccination and infection, according to a large study looking at blood antibodies published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

But children remain more vulnerable.

“We found the highest infection rates among children, closely followed by young adults, which may reflect their greater interconnectedness, including between siblings and parents in the household, as well as with peers in schools and the community,” writes Dr. Danuta Skowronski, the lead investigator. “The lowest cumulative infection rates were among older adults, which may reflect their greater vaccination rates and social isolation.”

 And other factors complicate the situation.

In a press release, Ontario Medical Association (OMA) President Dr. Rose Zacharias points to the fact that one million Ontarians do not have a family doctor .

“Family doctors are triaging and prioritizing calls and appointments, making sure the sickest patients or those with the most urgent needs are seen first. Patients whose conditions do not need to be seen or treated immediately are being asked to wait longer (or may expect to wait longer) for an appointment. Only patients in need of urgent care are being advised to go to emergency departments.”

Patients are returning to the healthcare system in large numbers, catching up on healthcare they missed during the pandemic, Dr. Zacharias is quoted as saying. “Many are showing up sicker and with more undiagnosed conditions requiring more aggressive treatment. OMA data shows almost 22 million fewer healthcare services happened during the pandemic than would have been expected.”

And this, while countless internationally-educated physicians are mired in the coils of a system that won’t let them practise in Canada.

“One solution that could be implemented immediately could bring more doctors into the healthcare system by next spring,” notes Dr. Zacharias. “We need to quickly license more internationally-educated physicians who are here now, in Canada, wanting to work as doctors.”

But the words of the very “frontline heroes” we celebrated at the height of the pandemic are disregarded as we head back (in droves) to in-person shopping and gatherings, merrily unmasked.

Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, was spotted partying without a mask, just days after urging everyone to mask-up.

How have we come to this? A country whose healthcare system was the envy of the world, one that navigated the pandemic remarkably well by most accounts, has parents desperate for common over-the-counter medications to ease the fever and pain of their children?

Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance service, reported an increase in the number of children with respiratory issues it transported last December.

Sabina Vohra-Miller, also a Grant’s Desi Achiever, has been quoted in the media as saying, “Just because kids are non-voting members of our society, it seems that it’s okay to cast their health and wellness aside”.

But kids have parents and grandparents who can advocate for their rights. So speak up, write to your councillors, MPPs and MPs. Sign petitions.

Step safely and with good health – yours and that of your children – into the New Year.