TORONTO — Doctors in Canada's FIFA World Cup host cities say they're concerned an already strained health-care system could buckle if a sudden, unexpected surge slams emergency departments during the games.
Dr. Catherine Varner, an emergency medicine physician in Toronto, wrote an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal today to raise concerns about vulnerabilities in the health-care system.
She says those vulnerabilities need to be addressed before soccer fans set foot in Toronto and Vancouver in June.
Local and provincial public health officials are anticipating health risks and have wastewater surveillance systems set up to detect infectious disease outbreaks during and after the games.
Varner says it's the anticipation of unexpected events that gives her chills.
Toronto emergency physician Dr. Raghu Venugopal says even on a boring Friday, they don't have enough beds for an 84-year-old patient with R-S-V left on a hospital gurney in the hallway.
He says he can't foresee a magical solution in the next few months that would change that.