A new coronavirus triage protocol in Quebec Province could deny critical medical care to people with disabilities and vulnerable groups, say concerned disability advocates.
Disability advocates fear discrimination against people with disabilities if Quebec doesn’t revise its COVID-19 triage protocol, a set of worst-case scenario guidelines designed to help doctors decide which patients get access to critical care beds and ventilators if the health-care system is strained.
Several of the exclusion criteria — the factors that help a medical team decide which patients are ineligible for life-saving intervention — are discriminatory, in the view of the Quebec Intellectual Disability Society, an umbrella group representing organizations across the province.
“It is worrisome that you could be excluding people with disabilities based on a clinical evaluation of the survival of the person, which is not necessarily a good indicator of their real survival chances,” Samuel Ragot, a policy analyst and adviser for the SQDI, was quoted as saying in a news report.
In addition to excluding patients who have suffered a heart attack or a severe and irreversible neurological event like a stroke, the criteria exclude anyone who has a severe cognitive disability due to a progressive illness that leaves them unable to perform daily activities without help.
People with an advanced and irreversible neuromuscular disease, such as Parkinson’s disease, would also not be entitled to intensive care if there was a shortage of resources, said Ragot.
With a second wave of the virus likely, Ragot said it’s urgent the province act now and remove any discriminatory criteria.
The SQDI has launched a website, triage.quebec, along with a petition.
