Un-vaxed should lose out in triage

Ted Doleman | Sep 22, 2021

We are moving into a period with our healthcare that will remind many around my age of the program MASH, unfortunately with none of the comedy. We are in a situation that will force doctors, hospitals, and provinces to literally decide who will live and who will die. As the western provinces run out of ICU capability, and our own late responses have taken up capacity, hard decisions will have to be made. At the moment we seem to have a situation where we are forcing those to enact policy, doctors and nurses, are being forced to write it also, that being triage protocol. This is due to the weak and cowardly responses we have seen so far from many provincial leaders where they have refused to make hard decisions until it is too late. Doctors, nurses, health experts should not be forced to write the rules of who may live or die. They should have input, but our political leaders should write the policy and take the full responsibility for writing that policy. 

Doctors when faced with the decision of where to place a toddler who was in a car accident who has a 40% chance of survival versus a 50-year-old who chose not to have a vaccination who has a 60% chance of survival should be given a clear policy by our elected officials. It should be a clear decision, the toddler who had no choice versus the adult who did, higher chance of survival versus lower, who should get the bed. It should not be left to the front line. Further to this will we accept patients from other provinces into our ICUs, will they be those who had a choice or those who are non-covid cases. What about children who can’t be vaccinated now, do they get the ICU bed before those who could have been vaccinated? Health care workers should be given clear guidance by those who are elected, not be left to decide on their own.

In three or four years from now there will be many investigations into what should have been done, what could have been prevented, what should have been in place. Many people choose to not get vaccinated; they are delaying treatment to many who have, and they will take up ICUs that will be unavailable to others who have no choice. Their decisions are harming, probably killing, others. The answer later of “who knew?”, and “I’ve been forced”, won’t cut it. We need leadership, from the Premiers and their cabinets, now. Write the policy and pass it, and let the health care workers focus on saving our lives. In short, do your job.

Ted Doleman