It has been more than 800 days since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Nobody knew the chaos and confusion to come, or when the collective nightmare would end.
Now, many Canadians have seen a satisfying return to a sense of normalcy, but the world is still learning how to recover and navigate this new reality.
In “Your Road Ahead” CHCH News looks at how the virus thoroughly interrupted everyone’s lives and pushed our most critical resources to their breaking point, but also the processes being made to bounce back and what work still lies ahead.
Healthcare
The tragedy of the pandemic unfolded most clearly at long-term care centres and hospitals.
More than a third of all COVID-19 related deaths in Ontario have been at long-term care centres. The Ontario government says as of June 14, 4,587 residents have died, along with 11 workers.
Meanwhile, healthcare workers were at the front line of the fight against the virus. With an immense amount of people ending up in hospital with COVID-19, health care staff were forced to work extra hours and intensive care units were pushed to their limits.
The pressure on hospitals resulted in severe burn out of healthcare workers. A recent survey from the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario found the level of burn out has climbed to 75.3 per cent. More than a quarter of nurses reported taking time off to manage stress, anxiety or other mental health issues, while 69 per cent say they plan to leave their position within five years.
Additionally, hospitals across Ontario have had to deal with a massive backlog of non-urgent surgeries. Right now there is around 1,400 children and 6,000 adults waiting for surgery.
To help work through the backlog, Hamilton Health Sciences is going to start doing some procedures normally done in Hamilton, at the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby.
