Globe and Mail: "Nurses seek formal SARS inquiry"

June 9, 2003 -- The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario is seeking a full judicial inquiry into the Canadian health care system's response to the SARS crisis, in order to determine if problems in that response have made the outbreak worse and how such problems can be avoided in the future, according to an article by Richard Mackie in today's Globe and Mail. The piece includes Association leaders' contentions that the government is resisting such an inquiry for political reasons, but that it is owed to those who have fallen ill and to the health care staff who have worked under the tremendous stress of SARS. The Globe and Mail deserves credit for covering this potentially far-reaching piece of patient advocacy by the nurses. The article also features quotes from Association leaders about cases where hospital officials reportedly attempted to overrule nurses' professional judgment that they were encountering SARS patients, thereby delaying diagnosis, treatment, and the use of protective clothing. Some nurses were reportedly told to take off their masks, because they were "overreacting."

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