dbd33

Sadly, I am massively experienced in attending "scrums" and "ceremonies" involving people intoning "in the past 24/7 I reached out and proactively interfaced, thereby empowering".

In the office I conjure an image of a taxi meter. At home I can lie back and think of England.

Danny B

The Wife and I finally caught COVID this week, at least those test at home kits say we did.

We are both in our late 40's, fit and healthy people, normal BMI and it was similar to a bad cold. I'm feeling 95% back to normal, can't wait to leave the house as tea bag situation is getting dire.

Paul_Shepherd

Yeah I think most people have had it now. The only downside was not being able to go anywhere...even for teabags! other than that, I carried on as normal... and on the plus side I ate a lot of my freezer stocks and made room for fresh stocks!

BristolUK

Good job you don't have sensitive to cold teeth.

BristolUK

So how are things looking in your bit of Canada now?

New Brunswick has seen cases doubled week on week recently. When you consider the massive reduction in testing it's not especially comforting.

Of course we do take comfort in this idea that Omicron is less likely to lead to negative outcomes like hospitalisation or death but the current patient number hospitalised with Covid is as high as it ever was. Note that now they only Count admitted with Covid whereas the previous numbers were those in hospital who tested positive after admission - their admission may or may not have been from Covid.

You don't need to be a genius to conclude that if the numbers admitted with Covid now equal previous numbers of all patients with Covid then the current numbers of all patients with Covid is very likely higher than previous peak figures.

On the topic of masking or other protections our Chief Medical Officer is now saying things like "At this point … we're not having that conversation."
And "The message right now is about vaccination, because that's the thing that's going to decrease people's risk of having severe outcomes and requiring hospitalization," and refusing to say whether it looks like a new wave or not.

Until this week I think it was only NB and one other province offering 2nd boosters to those as young as 50 but this week they suddenly dropped the age requirement to anyone over 18. It's almost like they've "seen something" in the numbers or other official information that they're not (as usual) telling us with this secrecy obsession. Unfortunately over the last year or so it seems she's speaking as the government wants her to rather than speaking from the Health perspective that she was originally.
(the same thing happened with a previous CMO who was fired)

N.B.'s focus on COVID-19 vaccines alone a 'gigantic mistake,' says epidemiologist

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I don't think that anyone in government wants to start introducing restrictions once more and now we seem to be seeing an upward trend everywhere there is more talk of booster shots and masking up yet do either of these things make the difference they are hoping for? I don't know. Some UBC bod was ranting on the other week about rising cases and a big wave coming our way mid July into August and suggesting we all mask up and reduce our social circles etc. She was a "modeler" and i think we all know how inaccurate some of these modeling cases can be but clearly we are seeing increasing cases. There is little point in masking up in grocery stores and shopping malls whilst we can still socialize and party our butts off unrestricted, it doesn't make any logical sense and goes with the article you quoted saying that one strategy isn't enough.
As for vaccines has there been any changes? Are we still being given a booster shot for an old vaccine that was made for a different variant? Has it been tweaked to have an effect on the latest Omicron variant that is supposed to be able to re infect people a few weeks after they have had COVID. It seems that relying on a vaccine that new variants are bypassing is not the best idea. However if hospitals can cope and ICU is not overwhelmed are we worrying over something that's difficult to control without bringing back restrictions across the board
Certainly Kelowna tourism is in full swing and business is thriving so we will see what the fall brings i guess

BristolUK

This is part of the concern. Or it should be.

Our CMO is still saying get boosted and wear masks (but your choice) and even said something along the lines of "if you must hold an event, consider doing it outside" - and from already being exceptional in giving second boosters to people over 50 has now dropped that to over 18.

And when you read that NB's infection rate is two and a half times the national rate you can see why the province has extended availability so dramatically.

But as that other guy says, vax alone is no good if it does little to stop the spread. Clearly there are many people getting it and passing it on and that while the individual who gets it has a lower chance of a bad outcome - because the vaccine is still good protection - there are that many people getting infected (more than twice the rest of Canada, remember) that the bad outcomes of death or hospitalisation are affecting just as many people as ever, and more than when we didn't have vaccines but followed other measures.
Well I can't speak for the rest of Canada but I've not read of any place, anywhere, where hospitals are catching up on pre-covid situations. I continue to read of long delays in ER, long delays of ambulance drop offs because there's no available beds, increased wait times and so on. This is not NB specific but what is NB specific is our city hospital not taking any new Orthopaedic referrals - not even people joining a waiting list.

There seems to be a lot NB specific, as I've mentioned, that might justify some NB specific response other than extending 2nd boosters to 18 and above.

My SD responded to this change. It's a two week wait before she can get jabbed. That will make it 8 months since the previous one when the 'recommendation' is 5.

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So far in BC there has been a closure of Clearwater ER several times since spring and twice this last week, the next nearest ER is 125 kms away. The reason is staff shortages. It's not a big place and probably doesn't attract workers that easily. So i guess even if some hospitals aren't seeing huge numbers being admitted they are not coping due to lack of qualified staff, either way its a serious issue.

BristolUK

While these things are separate issues they are also quite connected.

Ever since I've lived in NB there have been reports of smaller ER facilities closing at weekends and there's always been the odd report of an "outrageous" wait time of 8 hours or something. But now we get regular reports of far longer wait times and last week a guy died in his wheelchair while waiting.

Ambulances are delayed and can't drop off patients so sometimes people have to wait for an out of town ambulance because there's not a local one available.

We used to see our doctor with two or three of the family on double or triple appointments. A nice earner for him with three fees in one go and almost immediate appointments for us. But now with most appointments by phone it's all slowed down and people are even more likely to go to ER than previously because they (feel they) cannot wait.

There are consistently hundreds of hospital staff out with covid or isolating because they were in contact with a covid patient or colleague, so you've got more patients than usual because covid produces more patients and fewer staff to deal with them because of covid.

There's no reason to think this is not common to all of Canada. UK reports are the same.

While there are recruitment/retention and retirement issues, covid is making it all far worse.

printer

My other half has asthma which occasionally gets out of control and a few other health issues. She has always been monitored by a respirology consultant who sees her every 4 months except the last two years. They stopped seeing patients in house and reverted to Zoom consultation. She actually had her first in house consult last week. It's ridiculous to expect to consult and advise on someone's breathing and lung issues over a computer especially since masks were and still are a requirement of an in house consult. The whole system was failing patients with these rules in place. We attended a primary care centre 3 weeks ago as her breathing had become worse and first question the asked is have you seen your GP? She said its currently a 3 week wait, what do you think? They were fantastic and ended up prescribing steroids to sort out the issue but it shouldn't have come to this if her respirology doctor had been seeing her as before.

BristolUK

It does seem strange that family docs (and others) are still reluctant to see people. Mine will see me if essential, as he did when I had shingles.

My regular blood tests at the hospital (it's a 5 minute walk from my house) for years were on a walk-in basis. Usually in and out between 10 and 30 minutes but occasionally it could be fairly congested.

It's all by appointment now. I don't know how strict they are by times and so on but even with the screening at the entrance I'm now in and out even quicker than it used to be.

I would think if they can do that then so can a regular doctor even if they just had face to face appointments on only one or two days a week or something like that. I'm sure many people would be very happy not to actually go just for a prescription renewal or "I've reviewed your test results and all's good, no need to come in" and so on.

It's daft how we've gone from having to go in for everything and take up time for what could have been done by phone - and not even having to speak to the doc - to virtually all by phone. Maybe one day we'll get to the midway point where both parties can be content.

Atlantic Xpat

Healthcare systems seem to be in a state of collapse across Canada - if not the world (noting waits of 10 hrs for an ambulance in the UK). Here, Doctor recruitment and retention, especially in rural locales is a severe problem and that's leading to temporary closures and diversions. Those diversions likely necessitate a 4-5 hour drive to another overstretched ER. This problem is exacerbated by 25% of the population not having a GP which is a terrible situation, but again, not one unique to Newfoundland.

Our GP does both virtual and in person appointments. I appreciate the flexibility of a virtual appointment for the routine such as renewing prescriptions but there is no substitute for actually seeing a doc. Blood collection is still available on a walk in basis but for years I've availed of a private service where you pay $20 and a nurse takes the blood for you. Saves a trip into hospital and a great deal of time.

As a family we're spending a lot of time in the pediatric medicine system at present with our youngest who has leukemia. She's been in hospital 5 weeks out of the last 6. I have to say the quality of care has been outstanding and we're deeply thankful for that. Health facilities continue to require masks - although unlike earlier in the pandemic, there is no longer a security guard controlling access to the building, asking Covid screening questions and giving out medical masks, rather just a dispenser by the door (along with a hand sanitiser dispenser). With the rise in cases in the community and with a now immuno-supressed child in the family we're back to wearing masks when shopping and in other public places, plus being diligent about washing hands. It's a subject we've discussed with the oncology team & their view is that masking and handwashing as well as keeping away from obviously sick people is sensible, but balancing out that life still goes on is important. So, for example, when she is well enough in Sept, our daughter will go into school. The rise again of Covid is a worry though.

dbd33

Not here. I went to the cardiologist for annual testing (a treadmill I got on by mistake). He found no heart issues but proceeds from the assumption that if you're at the doctor, there must be something wrong, so he sent me for lung testing. While I was at the hospital for the lung test they asked if I'd like a chest x-ray on the side. I was half an hour early for the lung test so I had the x-ray. I could have had various other services but wasn't aware of any body parts needing maintenance.

ERs have mainly closed but we don't pay for vehicle license plate stickers anymore so that's a fair deal, as long as no one has an emergency.

BristolUK

Back in the winter when reports about ambulances not being able drop off patients and l-o-n-g waits were announced I told everyone in the house not to have an emergency.

Naturally my step daughter slipped on ice but since it was near the hospital she limped in.

Lucky for her that because one of the other clinics was closed for its normal use, the ER had been diverting people there, using it to treat obvious not emergencies and they put a cast on her sprain.

bats

We have had excellent care over the past few years seeing many specialists between us. Delays were caused by COVID though meaning an extra years wait for a cardiac procedure. I get to see doctors in person mostly as I can't hear well enough for a phone consultation. But, the local hospital has had to close emerge a few times due to staff shortages and the family doctor team has had two doctors retire and one move to palliative care. They replaced the doctors with nurse practitioners for many patients. First level care is lacking.