Re: The Great White North's triage guidelines

The executive director of an organization that opposes euthanasia, assisted suicide, and elder abuse has some concerns about Canada's protocols for treating COVID-19.

Coronavirus triage guidelines were developed by Dr. James Downar, the former chair of the Physicians Advisory Council for Dying with Dignity, which rabidly supports doctor-assisted suicide. Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition tells OneNewsNow one of the problems is that if a hospital ICU is near capacity, then certain people would not receive medical treatment.

"Basically if a hospital, due to the COVID-19 crisis, [if] the ICU is full, then anybody who … has a medical condition [and] is less likely to recover, or they're over a certain age, they would simply not be given medical treatment," Schadenberg explains.

But hospitals with a less populated ICU would treat them, and hospitals who are full could transfer patients to facilities that have beds available. So Schadenberg is mainly concerned about elderly people in Ontario nursing homes.

"What we've seen based on these triage protocols is that the decision is not to transfer these people to a hospital, even if they have a significant condition, and even if it's treatable," he reports. "So what you're finding is somebody who's living in a nursing home … if they come down with COVID-19 … they're basically only cared [for] in that nursing home, which is very limiting."

He says that means they are more likely to die.