Director of MUHC critical care says the situation is beyond surreal

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But this shedding of services and transferring of critically ill patients can only go on so long. When that process is exhausted, the protocol kicks in.

The prospect is chilling, says Goldberg.

“I see real dangers in this, not only in the immediate sense that we are going to be asked to discontinue patients who would have otherwise been allowed to continue, but the effects on patients, their families, the healthcare workers involved in making and witnessing these decisions,” he said.

“And I’m really concerned about the long-term effect of the trust between the community and healthcare providers after all this is over. I’m very concerned about whether we’ll ever regain that trust, even though people will know the government mandated it and it was necessary … but I’m not sure if our patients will ever look at us the same way anymore.”