With Its Universal Health Plan Cutbacks in spending on Canada's universal health care system have resulted in crowded hospitals that are forced to turn away ambulances bearing ill or injured Canadians. The emergency rooms in Toronto hospitals are so clogged this winter that patients wait hours for critical treatment. Some patients sleep on stretchers in drafty hallways and wait days for a hospital bed.
Nurses are frustrated and patients are furious.
Pauline Duncan was admitted for chest pains. She has spent three nights on an emergency room stretcher because there is no other place to put her. The frustration is shared by Canadian ambulance crews. Canadian health officials blame this year's crisis on a particularly nasty flu bug this winter that has strained emergency rooms across the country. But most Canadians say it is the health care system itself that is truly sick.