It’s like RSV took a two year sabbatical, was working out twice a day, meditating, eating well, and is now back and showing off

This is AHS. ONE very sick pt in the ED Multiple Nurses (+ ones outside to chart and grab meds/supplies due to COVID precautions), 2 RTs, lab tech, DI... Only ONE "BED" AHS =the skilled people that give the CARE. Talking about "beds" misses the heart of our org #IamAHS

Female physicians must pass the ‘competence’ factor as well as ‘likeability’ factor. I’m thinking of all the invisible labor I have put in to be liked by my colleagues, so that I can earn their respect as the next step. #WomenInMedicine

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to share. We are devastated to have lost the light of our lives. Evelyn was everything to us and lived her life to the fullest in the time that she had. I will love her forever. mhfh.com/tribute/detail…

*The Worst Pediatric-Care Crisis in Decades*- the title says it all. Thanks to ⁦Katherine J. Wu, Ph.D.⁩ ⁦The Atlantic⁩ for truly capturing the current state of the #PedsSurge & our voices from the front lines in #PedsICU #PedsEM #PedsID. theatlantic.com/health/archive…

Ontario has filled all its pediatric ICU beds as reported by Dr Warner. ⁦Michael Warner⁩ We need a mask mandate now. Let me repeat - we have no pediatric ICU beds. Let that sink in. thestar.com/news/gta/2022/…

When adult ICUs and EDs were at risk of being overwhelmed, we shut down the world to flatten the curve. When pediatric ICUs and EDs are overwhelmed, public life continues like nothing’s happening. I’d be heartbroken if I wasn’t so angry

SickKids is reducing surgeries to preserve critical care capacity. Please see our full statement on updates to our clinical operations: sickkids.ca/en/news/archiv…

Since pediatric critical care capacity is driving the news cycle right now, a thread on our field in Canada. /7

In Canada, we are a small field; just 17 hospitals care for every critically ill child in the country. There are less than 200 trained pediatric critical care physicians in the country.

To care for these children requires incredible expertise - nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, doctors, physiotherapists, dieticians - all specifically trained to work with this specific community. It's not something that we can scale up quickly and maintain quality.

To regionalize our care like this, we operate a large web of critical care transport systems to move children from smaller hospitals to one of our units. The lack of transport paramedics in Canada is a long-standing problem, and also not something easily scaled during surges.

Provinces run their own system of care and transport, maintaining their own data and operational support. Benchmarking quality and tracking capacity across units in Canada is impossible, given our province-led systems. We have been pushing for this to change, but no luck so far.

We care for children after surgery, children with mental health crises, children after trauma, children with severe infections, and so on. The case mix varies by season, by year, and by unit. Right now, it's almost all respiratory infections.

All this to say: given the costs to maintain these systems, we've always operated on the edge. This surge has demonstrated that the flexibility to quickly expand is not great, meaning cancelled surgeries, delayed transport from other hospitals, longer ER wait times, etc.

Pediatric hospitals = overwhelmed. ED,wards, PICUs..to help, wash hands, wear a mask indoors, vaccinate urself + family + stay home if sick . We aren't expecting gov to mandate changes when peds is in crisis, our patients don't vote......we are on our own + we will do our best

First-hand account of current healthcare crisis from Pediatric ER MD working in Ontario (shared with permission).

We can’t afford to go on like this: • Overcapacity paediatric ICUs • Overwhelmed ERs and critical care • Kids in adult ICUs • Surgeries being delayed All at once. That is why today I called for universal masking in schools and on public transportation. #onpoli #onhealth

We are negative 10 for pediatric ICU beds in Ontario in the last data upload publicly available. See below. If now is not the time to act with a mask mandate - are we waiting for what, -20 or -30?

Hamilton pediatric colleague posted, with ask that everyone masks: