Friday, September 9, 2011

Health rationing and quality of life assumptions

An interesting article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last month looks at how decisions are made about who will be treated during pandemics or when intensive-care resources are limited.

Can rationing possibly be rational?

The article notes that provincial protocols exclude people with developmental disability or certain chronic conditions from accessing a ventilator during a flu pandemic. We've written before about similar U.S. protocols.

Ontario is developing new critical care triage guidelines we'll want to follow over the next few months. Louise

0 comments: