e-7386 (Health)

Petition to the Minister of Health

• Emergency departments across Canada are under growing pressure and experiencing long waiting times, resulting in preventable harm and deaths
• Tragic cases such as those of Finlay van der Werken, a 16-year-old from Burlington who died waiting over eight hours in an Oakville hospital demonstrate systemic failures that are occurring nationwide
• Though healthcare is provincial regulated, the federal government shapes it through the Canada Health Act, national standards, and public health leadership.
• Provinces must meet Canada Health Act principles for full funding yet still receive the full transfer even as ER access worsens and Canadians face life threatening delays below CTAS standards.
• Children deteriorate faster and often cannot advocate for themselves. Timely access to pediatric-ready emergency care is therefore a fundamental component of the Act’s accessibility principle;
• Approximately 85% of pediatric emergency visits occur in general hospitals with widely varying pediatric readiness. In Finlay van der Werken’s case, investigations found nurses lacked pediatric expertise, placing patients at high risk of harm;
• Canada has no national standards for sepsis care, despite sepsis causing an estimated 18,000 deaths annually and being a leading cause of preventable mortality