Last week, this news story made the rounds. John Ross, the head of emergency medicine at the hospital, set off a "code orange" - an internal mass casualty alert for hospital staff - in response to a flood of untreated patients in the ER.
This week, it is quietly being announced John Ross is no longer the head of emergency medicine at QEII.
From the memo on the Capital Health website:
"We are writing to let know that we have re-aligned responsibilities within the Acute Care Portfolio and put a new leadership team in place at the QEII Emergency effective Monday, February 2. "
Re-aligned, eh? You mean, "re-assess how badly we need you versus how bad you make us look in public"? Health care in Canada, although free and accessible, costs a shitload of money to run. And the sad truth is, the emergency room is often the first stop for non-urgent medical problems when people can't fit in an appointment with their over-worked GP or can't make it to the local clinic (often open for fewer hours due to budget restraints). I don't know John Ross, but I am willing to bet money he was just dealing with a horrible situation the best way he knew how: call a code orange and let every capable person in the hospital be ready to treat patients. Put down the incessant paperwork, and clear the hallways. I applaud this sort of action-driven protest against how we run our hospitals, and I wish he wouldn't be demoted because of it.
It hasn't escaped my notice that the bloated healthcare system with all it's redundancy, paperwork and red tape is just mimicked in these new leadership roles. To wit, Dr. John Ross has now been unceremoniously replaced with not one, but two other people:
"Sam [Campbell] and Sandra [Janes] will work collaboratively in a co-leadership model to ensure we are positioned to optimally deliver quality and safe patient access and flow"
Right.
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