Nash Syed, president of the Children’s Hospital at the London Health Sciences Centre, said this week that the move to cancel surgeries was “an extremely difficult decision and one that I wish we didn’t have to make.”
He added it was “necessary to ensure the hospital’s teams are able to meet critical care and emergency needs.”
“My son had a fever of 106 F last week. Lasted a week. I was very scared as a mom,” said London resident Randi Bethke, a nail technician who has two children.
“What if he has to go to emerg? Will he be able to get the care he needs?”
- Children’s Hospital in London, Ont., cancels surgeries due to high occupancy
Bethke, 31, doesn’t believe governments are doing enough to keep children safe right now.
“We are looked at as the poster child of health care in the world, yet right now it’s horrific,” she said. “I don’t feel as if they are treating this like the crisis it is.”
Canada in pediatriac crisis
She’s not the only one.
A group of prominent mothers, grandmothers and caregivers that calls itself Moms, Grandmoms, and Caregivers for Kids released an open letter Wednesday morning from Calgary that’s addressed to the prime minister and premiers.
Members of the group include Kathleen Taylor, chair of the Hospital for Sick Children’s board of trustees, former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne and former MP Lisa Raitt, now co-chair of the Coalition for a Better Future.
“This crisis isn’t new,” reads the letter. “Children’s hospitals and advocates have been raising the alarm that an urgent response is needed at the national and provincial levels to bring leadership and action for kids in Canada.
“It should never have gotten this far. Our kids deserve better.”
The group calls on governments to earmark funds for children’s health care and collect health data about that demographic. It also urges the government to “implement proven strategies” to curb viral spread, and suggests appointing an ombudsperson for children to “lead us through this crisis and get Canada back to being a world-leading country for kids to grow up in.”
Missing work to care for kids ‘stressful’
Lia De Pauw of Kingston, Ont., is a mother of two who works as a mental health promotion specialist at KFL&A Public Health.
She said the number of days of work she’s missed to care for her sick children are mounting.
“We were just off from Nov 2 to 11 with a respiratory bug.
“That was seven unpaid days so far this month,” she added. “I’ve missed around 50 days of work in 2022 to care for my kids, Much of that has been unpaid time.
“It’s been extremely stressful to lose so much income and wonder about impacts on job security as the sole income earner in my family.”
The letter addresses concerns that children are missing school because of a rash of illnesses, and parents staying home to care for their children are losing out on paid work.
- London pharmacists await government relief for kids pain and fever meds
- 1 million bottles of children’s pain, fever medication coming to Canadian shelves
CBC News contacted the two major school boards in London to inquire about the rate of student absenteeism.
A spokesperson for the London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) said concrete data isn’t immediately available, but there have been no “flags or alerts” to indicate student absences are higher than usual for this time of year.
Cheryl Weedmark of the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) said in an email on Monday that the board hasn’t seen an increase in student and staff absences, although it would take time to get specific numbers.