Compassion Fatigue

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The letter, signed by 200 medical doctors and scientists, said the pandemic is spiraling out of control in Manitoba because case numbers have been rising and outbreaks have been occurring at long-term care homes.

I get to thinking there's at least an opportunity, if not an explicit purpose, in our trajectory toward senescence. On bad days, it freaks me out and I enter my default existentialism that seems to have coloured most of my life, from frantically saving the dying insects on the surface of my childhood pool to contemplating the spirited air that must surround the hallways of our local hospice and its quiet lakeside dock.

We’ve been getting by with virtual care, and during the pandemic, it may be the best option possible given the many constraints we are facing. But we need to recognize and value the relational effort that makes virtual care function. Ultimately, family medicine is built on relationships. It's relationships, in the clinic and in our communities that will get us through this pandemic.

Proposed legislation to amend Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying goes against the nature of medicine, which is to heal patients and alleviate suffering, says Dr. Ramona Coelho, a family physician in London, Ont. Dr. Coelho is among a group of physicians who wrote an open letter opposing Bill C-7. More than 800 Canadian doctors have now signed the letter.

In response to the staffing shortages, the commission recommended that in addition to increasing the supply of PSWs, the province should ensure LTC staff recruitment efforts are addressing the need for an appropriate mixture of staff to meet the "increasing acuity and complex care needs of residents."