Read on Twitter
1/ Was a little surprised to see my name inserted into this @macleans article, insinuating a link between #maid and critical care triage in an article that was supposed to be about doing more to support the disabled... https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/dying-for-the-right-to-live/
2/ Since you didn’t contact me for a comment, I’ll put one here instead. Important to disentangle these issues. First- I agree that we need to do more to support the disabled- financially and otherwise. This was an issue long before #maid and #COVID19 ...
3/ Second, the logic behind any critical care triage plan is to try to reduce the number of preventable deaths, and create explicit guidelines to prevent implicit biases from influencing triage decisions. Many triage guidelines make reference to frailty, a medical condition...
4/...like cancer or heart failure that indicates a high mortality risk in critical illness. It is distinct from “disability”, which usually doesn’t have a high mortality risk. Read here for a good review https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/59.3.M255 ...
5/ Without our triage guidelines, the risk is that disabled people may be inappropriately denied critical care based on biases and implicit assumptions. The guidelines are protective for the disabled, and have been endorsed by human rights experts https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/august-2020/its-time-for-canada-to-follow-ontarios-critical-care-triage-protocol/
6/ As for the point about #maid, your story leaves out a few critical details about the law- particularly the fact that a person must have intolerable suffering to qualify for maid. You can’t receive maid because of financial difficulties....
7/ I appreciate that some are opposed to legalizing MAID, but two recent reports make it very clear that MAID is not being driven by financial issues or lack of supports. https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/8/E173 and https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/documents/services/medical-assistance-dying-annual-report-2019/maid-annual-report-eng.pdf
8/ And Im still not clear why you mentioned my name in your article next to a comment that the disabled and frail were being excluded. We had extensive engagement with disability rights groups over many months about triage.
9/ I have also spent many days caring for hundreds of LTC residents with COVID over the past few months. Your frustration with subsidies is legitimate, but your swipe at me was gratuitous. Next time you want to talk about someone’s work, maybe ask them for an interview? @macleans
