Well, here's a reassuring article! We don't know how many ventilators we have, so we'll order 370 of them just to be on the safe side. I wonder if they will arrive next Spring or Fall?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...stics-hard-to-come-by/article1210101/#article
Gloria Galloway and Caroline Alphonso
Ottawa and Toronto ? From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 07, 2009 11:05PM EDT
When Canadians started falling ill with the strain of influenza that has become a global pandemic, the Public Health Agency of Canada committed to providing updated statistics on the spread of the disease three times a week.
But Monday's reporting time came and went with no new numbers being posted on the health agency's website. Requests for an explanation went unanswered for about 20 hours until a spokeswoman explained that five of the provinces are now reporting their numbers of confirmed cases and fatalities just once a week.
That delay is typical of responses in recent days from the federal agency responsible for protecting the health of Canadians.
Liberal health critic Carolyn Bennett said Tuesday that Canadians need frank explanations as medical experts prepare for what could be a dangerous surge this fall of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, as the World Health Organization has now designated it.
?I believe if we are going to go into something really tough in the fall, as it looks like we will, the trust in the relationship that the people of Canada have with [Chief Medical Officer of Health] David Butler-Jones and all of the chief public health officers across the country is going to be extraordinarily important,? she said.
Dr. Butler-Jones has been candid and informative when speaking to reporters. But the daily press conferences he held at the beginning of the outbreak, along with Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, have dwindled to every two weeks.
The Globe and Mail has been asking the Public Health Agency of Canada since last Thursday whether it knows how many medical ventilators exist across Canada.
The pandemic flu has severely affected more younger people than the usual seasonal influenzas. An unexpectedly large number have required treatment with the machines that pump air into their lungs, and for longer periods of time. So ventilators are becoming a critical resource.
PHAC, which plans to purchase an additional 370 machines, increasing its stockpile to 500, doesn't appear to know how many are available.
?We are currently assessing the number of ventilators across the country. But we are not waiting to get these figures ? which is why we are taking action right now to increase our stockpile of ventilators,? a spokeswoman for the agency said in an e-mail.
Privately, senior Health Department officials say the numbers are difficult to obtain because of the balkanized nature of Canada's health-care system. Provinces and territories, which are responsible for tracking health-care resources, may provide that information to Ottawa but it's not within PHAC's mandate to release it.
Whether or not sufficient ventilators are in place, hospitals may face another related issue: technicians to operate them and isolation rooms to contain the disease.
?Ventilators you can probably buy, and you can move them around,? said Tim Brewer, the director of global health programs for the faculty of medicine at McGill University in Montreal. ?But you can't ship isolation rooms.?
The ventilators certainly could be an issue. But I think the isolation room capacity is going to be an issue as well.?
The virus has infected more than 98,000 people and claimed about 440 lives worldwide.
The World Health Organization has renamed the virus Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, because experts believe the name is ?scientifically sound, but also would avoid some of the stigma associated with other options,? said Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director-general for health security and environment. Hog farmers had complained when the virus was referred to as swine flu.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...stics-hard-to-come-by/article1210101/#article
Gloria Galloway and Caroline Alphonso
Ottawa and Toronto ? From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 07, 2009 11:05PM EDT
When Canadians started falling ill with the strain of influenza that has become a global pandemic, the Public Health Agency of Canada committed to providing updated statistics on the spread of the disease three times a week.
But Monday's reporting time came and went with no new numbers being posted on the health agency's website. Requests for an explanation went unanswered for about 20 hours until a spokeswoman explained that five of the provinces are now reporting their numbers of confirmed cases and fatalities just once a week.
That delay is typical of responses in recent days from the federal agency responsible for protecting the health of Canadians.
Liberal health critic Carolyn Bennett said Tuesday that Canadians need frank explanations as medical experts prepare for what could be a dangerous surge this fall of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, as the World Health Organization has now designated it.
?I believe if we are going to go into something really tough in the fall, as it looks like we will, the trust in the relationship that the people of Canada have with [Chief Medical Officer of Health] David Butler-Jones and all of the chief public health officers across the country is going to be extraordinarily important,? she said.
Dr. Butler-Jones has been candid and informative when speaking to reporters. But the daily press conferences he held at the beginning of the outbreak, along with Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, have dwindled to every two weeks.
The Globe and Mail has been asking the Public Health Agency of Canada since last Thursday whether it knows how many medical ventilators exist across Canada.
The pandemic flu has severely affected more younger people than the usual seasonal influenzas. An unexpectedly large number have required treatment with the machines that pump air into their lungs, and for longer periods of time. So ventilators are becoming a critical resource.
PHAC, which plans to purchase an additional 370 machines, increasing its stockpile to 500, doesn't appear to know how many are available.
?We are currently assessing the number of ventilators across the country. But we are not waiting to get these figures ? which is why we are taking action right now to increase our stockpile of ventilators,? a spokeswoman for the agency said in an e-mail.
Privately, senior Health Department officials say the numbers are difficult to obtain because of the balkanized nature of Canada's health-care system. Provinces and territories, which are responsible for tracking health-care resources, may provide that information to Ottawa but it's not within PHAC's mandate to release it.
Whether or not sufficient ventilators are in place, hospitals may face another related issue: technicians to operate them and isolation rooms to contain the disease.
?Ventilators you can probably buy, and you can move them around,? said Tim Brewer, the director of global health programs for the faculty of medicine at McGill University in Montreal. ?But you can't ship isolation rooms.?
The ventilators certainly could be an issue. But I think the isolation room capacity is going to be an issue as well.?
The virus has infected more than 98,000 people and claimed about 440 lives worldwide.
The World Health Organization has renamed the virus Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, because experts believe the name is ?scientifically sound, but also would avoid some of the stigma associated with other options,? said Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director-general for health security and environment. Hog farmers had complained when the virus was referred to as swine flu.