OTTAWA Odelia Scher is no stranger to the intensive care unit at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. Walking into the COVID unit at the hospital in Ottawa s west end for the first time, she was taken aback. I hadn’t been to the COVID unit or the COVID ICU at all and when I walked in and saw the environment, it was a lot to take in, Scher said. Scher spent one year in the intensive care unit at the Queensway Carleton Hospital before moving to a different specialization. Last week, she was called back to critical care. My stomach just kind of dropped a little bit, Scher said.
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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought passionate pleas for life-saving ventilators and horror stories of hospital’s running out of space in their intensive care units (ICUs) from around the world.
ICUs, where the sickest of the sick are cared for, were a major concern for every politician and health administrator. But what will the lasting effect of COVID-19 be on ICUs and critical care?
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As for likely all areas of society, there will be changes in critical care in the post-COVID era. As happened after the SARS epidemic of 2003, there will be renewed investment into critical care with grandiose promises but, as is often the case, as the spotlight fades so will this commitment.