Thank you.
Specifically with respect to the role of the federal government, there has been no apparent national coordination of public health measures, leaving a very confusing and differing set of measures on business closures and public gathering restrictions, varying from city to city and province to province. There must be clarity and federally coordinated messaging with respect to strict and uniform preventive public health measures, including public masking, gathering sizes and travel restrictions.
The importance of consistent messaging for effective communication should outweigh potential jurisdictional concerns. Until now, the federal government has only been one voice among many, which has led to conflicting and confusing direction to the Canadian public and to health care providers. CAEP believes that it could have a partnership role in a stronger federal role, in that emergency physicians are generally perceived by the public as knowledgeable and credible, since we are on the front lines of the battle and we're ready to help.
To avoid provinces competing with each other for needed supplies as we approach the surge in the coming weeks, we need the federal government to ensure the rapid and continuous procurement and distribution of vital PPE, laboratory supplies, testing kits and ventilators. Of all these things, right now personal protective equipment is the top priority, in order to secure the health and trust of the acute care and emergency workforce. Expert-based, standardized recommendations for PPE must continue to be developed as we get new knowledge and disseminate it across the country, especially to ensure that rural and smaller centres that may not have local expertise are provided with the same level of comfort and safety as larger centres. To the extent possible, transparency in this is necessary to ensure that recommendations are indeed based on an appropriate abundance of caution rather than the availability of supplies.
During a crisis, it is well established that an effective and lean command and control system is critically important, yet we still do not have an integrated incident management system in place. As a result, we have multiple ministries, departments and agencies involved in a confusing and overlapping span of control. An IMS approach would help implement all of our recommendations and ensure the ability to respond quickly to changing science and circumstances.
Therefore, we see an immediate need for the following: one, create a national incident management system, vertically integrated with provincial systems; two, standardize public health measures and communication nationally; three, use the IMS and the emergency powers act to ramp up domestic production of PPE, equipment and medication, and create a national distribution system to avoid balkanization; and four, ramp up national testing capacity and standardize an aggressive national surveillance strategy to go along with isolation and contact tracing of positives.
Canada faces an unprecedented public health crisis. A national crisis requires national leadership. We need the federal government to provide a steady, clear voice that signals decisive leadership and clear command and control. As emergency physicians, we will stand with you as we embark on this unique challenge and a national enterprise of delivering hope to our citizens.
On behalf of our colleagues, Dr. Drummond and I thank you for the opportunity.