A document that has left people with disabilities “scared” they’ll be denied an intensive care bed or ventilator during the COVID-19 pandemic is just a “draft,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott says.
The Clinical Triage Protocol for Major Surge in COVID Pandemic – a copy obtained by the Toronto Sun dated March 28 is not stamped with the word “draft” – sets out guidelines for health-care professionals as a “last resort” when allocating life-saving resources during a shortage.
Advocates say the document makes unfair value judgments about the quality of lives lived by those in the disabled community in violation of their human rights, and has left many of them fearful that they won’t be entitled to the same level of care as everybody else.
“A person’s disability should absolutely never be used as a criterion for deciding whether they get critically needed health care,” David Lepofsky, chair of the AODA Alliance, said Tuesday. “And certainly a doctor’s or nurse’s or EMT’s subjective view of the quality of living with a disability – compared to the quality of the life of somebody living without a disability – should never be a factor in these decisions.”
Advocates for the disabled are planning to release an open letter to the Ontario government Wednesday in protest.
Elliott acknowledged the existence of the document Tuesday but said it still needs to go through final review by government cabinet.
“I know that there have been some concerns that have been expressed by people with certain disabilities, that they would be cut out of treatment if we got to that point,” Elliott said. “I would never allow that to happen. People with disabilities are treated in the same way as everyone else, as they should be.”
This type of document, one that provides guidance on who should get advanced life-saving care, would only come into effect if all else failed, she said.
Robert Lattanzio, executive director of ARCH Disability Law Centre, said the document provides three levels of triage for health-care providers based on demand and resources.
Using the “frailty scale,” the framework doesn’t just look at who would benefit most from the care, but also calls on health professionals to consider factors like the quality of life of those with a disability, he said.
“That is where we cross a line that we cannot cross,” he said.
Lattanzio said he’s not aware that the protocol is currently in place, but he’s hearing from members of the disabled community aware of it and “scared” that they won’t get the care they need if they go to hospital.
“There’s a heightened sense of fear in the midst of everything else that is going on,” Lattanzio said. “All of our lives are turned upside down but for our communities, for people with disabilities, they are in the fight for their lives.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
