UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
 from Toronto Life’slong-form archives

Dear Reader,

This week, Doug Ford’s provincial government released its plan to invest in private health care, moving thousands of surgeries and diagnostic procedures to for-profit facilities across Ontario. Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the decision will help clear up the province’s surgical backlog and reduce hospital wait times. Critics warn that privatization will only add more pressure to the overburdened, underfunded public system—potentially driving burnt-out practitioners away from already understaffed hospitals. Below, you’ll find three deep dives into the realities of Toronto health care: the rise of hallway medicine, a nightmarish case of medical misconduct and one doctor’s near-death experience in the ICU.

Hallway Health Care

This woman spent 47 hours waiting for surgery in the Sunnybrook emergency room—with shattered wrists, a broken elbow, cracked ribs and internal bleeding. An investigation into the overcrowding of Toronto ERs

BY ALISON MOTLUK | APRIL 16, 2018

When administrators at overcrowded hospitals find themselves with more patients than beds, they have to get creative. People are kept everywhere from chaotic emergency rooms and hallways to offices and bathrooms. In addition to raising serious privacy and dignity concerns, the cramped conditions make it hard for doctors and nurses to do their jobs properly. This is no way to practise medicine, wrote Alison Motluk in this 2018 feature, yet patients seem to be slowly resigning themselves to the inevitability—and fallout—of long waits and a war zone atmosphere at Toronto hospitals.

A Doctor’s Deception

Paul Shuen was one of the city’s most respected obstetricians. Then his nurses noticed something unusual about the way he delivered babies. A story of greed, betrayal and medical misconduct

BY MICHAEL LISTA | JULY 24, 2019

For 30 years, Paul Shuen was an esteemed ob-gyn and gynecological oncologist at North York General Hospital. As Shuen’s practice and reputation grew, so did his ego. Over time, he became increasingly cavalier about a core tenet of medicine: consent. The doctor began secretly inducing his patients, causing them to go into labour on weekends—when he could bill OHIP a higher rate for deliveries. Michael Lista’s shocking 2019 feature told the scandalous truth about Shuen’s practice and the families who suffered under his care.

Life and Death in the ICU

In March 2020, Larry Pancer, a beloved pediatrician from Markham Stouffville Hospital, was admitted with Covid-19. His colleagues were terrified of losing him, and they nearly did—twice

AS TOLD TO OMAR MOUALLEM | SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

In the early days of the pandemic, Larry Pancer was admitted to the hospital where he’d worked as a pediatrician for more than three decades. A 65-year-old with diabetes, the doctor was a high-risk Covid patient when health care workers were only beginning to understand what they were up against. For this oral history, Pancer’s family and colleagues joined him in recounting the harrowing experience in intimate detail, chronicling the extraordinary lengths they went to in order to save his life.

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