Amy Hamm: We need an antidote to Canada’s toxic lifestyle

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Canadians have always been proud of our health care system, which was once the best in the world. Not these days. Our health care has changed from something we can enjoy together to something we all have to worry about.

Case in point: Five emergency rooms in BC were closed due to staff shortages over the long Labor Day weekend. Who knows what accidents occurred. These shutdowns are becoming common – a clear indication that our system is in bad shape. Canadians often hear about staff shortages and burnout plaguing our doctors and nurses. What we don’t hear much about is what causes these problems. It is many things, yes; however, as a registered nurse for 13 years, I can tell you that one major driver is the cultural crisis within our social system.

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Canadians are well aware of the bloat of the health care system; to a a recent Ipsos poll78 percent of us agreed that the system is “too regulatory.” But it goes deeper than bureaucratic red tape.

The health care culture is toxic and dominated by a group of opinionated executives who often seem to care more about enforcing their law than patients and employees. It wasn’t like that when I started over ten years ago. Today, you have to join a radical sect just to be able to be employed in the field.

Nurses and doctors fear their employers and their managers. They fear being reprimanded, harassed, or fired if another organization finds out they’ve made a mistake – imagine – even when they’re not on the job.

The unions we pay our dues for are often more ideological than the employers we pay to protect us.

Everywhere, there is a culture of fear and distrust among administrative staff. Nurses and doctors come to me again and again to share similar stories of silence, as well as fear of being dismissed as a heretic.

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I’ve lost count of the number of nurses and doctors who have told me they plan to retire. I know some who have retired early. Or they were fired for refusing a COVID vaccine and refused to go back. The ones who tell their family and friends to never get involved in any activity to begin with. Those looking for work in the private care sector, or hoping that the rules will change so that one day they can escape the public system. (The public wants this too – the same Ipsos poll showed that more than half of us want personal care options.) And then there are those who are just afraid to make a mistake and draw the ire of Diversity, Equity , and Inclusion. a group of shooters.

The purpose of our work as nurses and doctors – to care for people – has been undermined by widespread expectations of political purity.

There used to be a general rule never to talk about politics at work. Now, on health issues, politics (of the left) come to you. It cannot escape. Silence helps a bit, as we are all expected to participate enthusiastically. It offends those who disagree (probably more than half of us, judging by the new one national election data with our support for the united political parties).

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Cleanliness demands come in many forms: when unions tell workers that they are racists working within a “systemically racist” system, and we must accept this terrible insult as the truth; by forcing officials to do the obligatory, individual—and helpless—valuation of land every time three or more people meet; with highly politicized corporate emails that, to all appearances, were written by 20-year-old social justice activists; with rewritten care guidelines replacing the word “woman” with “pregnant woman”; with blanket policies “tender affirming” that fly in the face of evidence-based care; and with the acceptance of “harm reduction” as an unquestioned philosophy of care, rather than a potential source of evidence-based practices. I can go on.

So, what if you disagree? However, our public health authorities not only want compliance, they also want to make shots at their employees. Over the past few years in BC, health authorities have created and operated a completely separate, empty department called a “respectable workplace department”. It is within these departments that workers – and even the public – can be awakened by anonymous complaints about health workers deviating from the institution’s basic education. Workers fight each other. Snitches use great power to abuse and harass others.

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Public health authorities are happy to take their staff in front of a hostile group of senior management, staff and respected workplace representatives to deliver a printed image of “liked” or ” shared” social media post across the table to you – looking for an explanation. Who gave you permission to think for yourself? We are watching you.

This is not a culture that attracts our best and brightest, or is profit-driven – as all caregivers should be. It is not a culture that puts patients first. We cannot save Canadian health care unless we treat its serious emotional infection. Doctor, get well.

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