The relative calm that reigns in the streets of downtown Toronto and the good humor of passers-by who stroll masked in the spring sunshine contrast with the critical situation in its health system, overwhelmed by the third wave of COVID -19. Barely three weeks after the closure of restaurant terraces in the Canadian metropolis, its hospitals are overflowing like never before.
“As soon as they announced that everything was shutting down… Looks like all of a sudden, boom. In April, it exploded ”, testifies the nurse Natacha Hainzelin, who made an appointment at the Duty in front of Sunnybrook Hospital, a major hospital located north of downtown and where she works.
The 33-year-old nurse is on the front lines to see the large influx of COVID-19 patients, whose hospitalizations are reaching record levels in the Greater Toronto Area in recent days. However, she is used to welcoming victims of shootings, patients stabbed or mutilated by road accidents in the emergency room. But to see his hospital so full? Never.
“Emergencies are overflowing,” she drops. If it continues like this, we don’t know where the patients are going to go. “Especially since those who come to the emergency room are now younger, she notes, and most of the time infected with the British variant of the coronavirus. “It almost looks like it’s a different kind of COVID. We see patients in their thirties with no medical history who cannot explain why they are there because they are out of breath. It shocks us a bit. “
An invisible crisis
If it weren’t for the more empty streetcars than usual, the vacant office towers, or the closed restaurants and schools, in Toronto, one might think that life is going on pretty much normal, albeit very slowed down. The narrow sidewalks are still crowded in places, and queues form in front of pharmacies transformed into vaccination centers. In the streets of Toronto, wearing a mask is the norm. There is little evidence to suggest that the city’s hospitals, in better shape than those in Montreal during the first two waves, are now the main battleground against COVID-19 in the country.
It almost looks like it’s a different kind of COVID.
“It takes place behind closed doors,” says Doris Greenspoon, president of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. “In Italy, hospitals did not admit patients. In Ontario, we put them on beds, but we don’t have enough staff, ”she says.
” Here [dans la rue], it is not a good vision that we have of what happens in the emergency room. We can see the intensity, the face of people who are separated from their families, ”confirms nurse Natacha Hainzelin, who estimates that the emergency in her hospital is operating at“ 9 and a half out of 10 ”of its maximum possible. “I think it’s amazing that we got there in such a short time. “
Behind her, a field hospital has been set up in a parking lot of the imposing Sunnybrook Hospital. It is made up of large tents linked together and powered by generators. 84 beds have just been placed there to accommodate “in the coming days” patients in remission from COVID-19 to make room inside for other patients whose needs are more pressing. The province has also increased the number of transfers of patients from Toronto to other regions, sometimes as far away as Niagara, Kingston or Ottawa.
Rapid rise
“It’s pretty much like what you would see in a war,” said Anthony Dale, president of the Ontario Hospital Association, of the major redeployment of health care workers following the cancellation of all surgeries. non-urgent, announced mid-week. “The rest of the country should know what’s going on here,” he says emphatically.
With a rise in coronavirus contamination “out of control” in Ontario, but especially in the GTA, hospitals and intensive care have experienced record increases in the past two weeks, he said. With the cancellation of non-urgent surgeries, medical specialists are now reassigned to support their colleagues who work in the red zone. Adult patients are admitted to children’s hospitals. “This has never happened before, to my knowledge,” said Anthony Dale, who believes that the “very difficult” conditions in Toronto intensive care could last at least for the next 4 to 8 weeks. “The consequences for the health of Ontarians, both for COVID-19 and for cancellations and postponements of surgeries, will be felt over a generation. “
As if that were not enough, nearly one in eight nurses at the start of their career (26 to 35 years old) is thinking of leaving the profession after the pandemic, according to a survey commissioned by their association. “We are starting to be exhausted,” also confides Natacha Hainzelin, whose work in the emergency triage at night has forced her to work many overtime in recent weeks. “I’ve been a nurse for twelve years, and for the first time, I slept 24 hours after my shift, two days ago. “
In the heat of the moment, the thought of changing careers did not cross his mind. On the other hand, she is well aware that such a third wave could have been avoided, if Torontonians took the sanitary instructions more seriously. “I don’t mean to tell people not to visit their loved ones, but… please stay home! “
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