CANADA: Increase in need for life support

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The health-care system must begin preparing now for an explosion in demand for intensive-care services as Canada’s population ages over the next 20 years, an Ontario study warns.



Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences estimate that by 2026, almost 35,000 Ontario adults could require mechanical ventilation – an 80 per cent increase from 2000.



The findings are based on provincewide use of ventilators in 2000 and population projections for the next two decades.



« Ontario intensive care units are not only dealing with shortages of nurses, intensivists (specially trained ICU physician specialists), and other staff, but also potential increased rates of retirement of ICU personnel as these health professionals age along with the baby boomers, » said lead author Dr. Dale Needham, whose study appears in the March issue of Critical Care Medicine.



« As a result, the increased need for mechanical ventilation life-support services shown in our study will present a serious problem if we do not make a concerted effort now to adequately recruit and train ICU health professionals, » Needham, a research fellow at the institute, said in a release.



The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences is an independent, non-profit organization that uses population-based data to produce knowledge on a broad range of health issues.



All of the above text is a press release provided by the quoted organization. globalagingtimes.com accepts no responsibility for their accuracy.


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