COVID-19
Part IV: Clerical Errors Affect Real People!
Medical clerical staff are significant workers in the health centres.
Not only do they support the doctors and nurses in their roles, but they also ensure accurate results which turn into statistical analysis for future treatment recommendations.
But consider the case of my mother, who was allegedly diagnosed with Covid 19 at a seniors’ home and consequently spent two weeks in isolation (quarantine) as per government policy.
Nearly two weeks later, a note was added to her file of which the content follows:
November 27, 2020
Dear Resident/Family Member
I am writing to you to confirm that we have had no other residents at …. test
positive for COVID-19. With that being said, we have taken many residents off isolation today
due to a clerical error from AHS that resulted in a false positive reporting.
The director of the facility ends the letter off with an interesting paragraph:
Please also know that the best defense against the spread of this virus are actions that are well
within each of our control: stay home as much as possible, practice physical distancing (2
metres)/ wash your hands regularly/ use good cough etiquette and avoid touching your mouth.
Without playing the victim card, what is the consequence of this clerical error to the individual who made the error?
For my mother, she lost 2 weeks of her life isolated in her apartment with a hazmat suit, masks and gloves in front of her unit. She could not receive visitors and was not able to see her family.
Like any senior, student, teacher or worker who may have received a false positive, they are not faceless or nameless. Errors have real life consequences.
This marks the 5th time of isolation in the retirement home. Of these 5 times, ALL were due to policy i.e. 2-week isolation for a negative test or returning from a trip to visit family. While initially based on a positive indicator, this last circumstance was triggered by a hallway disinfection during which she had coughing symptoms and a test was administered. It turns out the particular disinfectant used by the home may trigger a coughing reaction.
However, the test was conducted and the positive was overturned. Mea Culpa.
I have to wonder what the clerical staff who erred received for their gaffe? The note is not clear as to if the clerical error was on the part of the technician or the individual entering the results. Either is unacceptable-technical or clerical side. Or the alternate questions, how many other people had their lives turned upside down due to the error? We also have to wonder how many people were contact traced and as well had to isolate?
We can probably estimate that for each false positive, 5 people were requested to be tested and if the test was incorrect OR the clerical staff erred there could be as many as 50 false results that day.
Province wide, what was the impact on the daily fright report? If again, 50 people were false, our daily numbers would fall. Perhaps more results were incorrect? We do not know, but we do know that peoples’ lives are not to be tampered with and such activities should not be merely accepted.
Extending the argument system-wide, it is these types of errors that continue widespread criticism of our response to the virus. Clerical errors can cause elevated numbers and create more panic (and thereby justify more extreme measures) just as inaccurate or no reporting of other diagnosis such as the influenza and related deaths, suicides, automobile accident fatalities, drug overdoses due to depression and potential prescription related deaths (#3 in the US).
It is well know by anyone who has undergone physiotherapy for shoulder or leg injuries that if your left arm is injured that you will over compensate on the right side. Therefore as one limb heals, the other can also be injured leading to another cycle of physio. The same principle should apply to our health system.
While Covid 19 is a ‘real’ virus with real world threat, it must be considered as part of a larger pie to give world citizens a balanced view of our national health threats else our go to strategy for health management is crisis instead of calm and long term nutritional and holistic approaches.
Clerical errors not withstanding, errors must be publicly acknowledged and corrected. Incorrect positive tests (cases) must be modified and appropriate actions taken to ensure honesty in health reporting. The citizens of our cities, provinces and countries deserve truth from our health providers and ministries. Responsibility and accountability MUST be part of a responsible and responsive health system.
To take a quote out of context, “One small misstep for man, one large misstep for mankind.”
Tamara Lich arrives for her trial at the courthouse in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. Lich and fellow Freedom Convoy organizer Chris Barber are charged with mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The trial of “Freedom Convoy” organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber has begun a scheduled break that will continue until after Thanksgiving.
The court finished hearing the testimony of Serge Arpin, the chief of staff to Ottawa’s former mayor, on Friday.
He spoke about how the city responded to the protest that overwhelmed the downtown core for three weeks in early 2022.
Arpin also testified about his interactions with convoy organizers while working out a deal with former mayor Jim Watson to move big-rig trucks out of residential neighbourhoods.
The evidence was originally due to be wrapping up by this point in the trial, which had been scheduled to last 16 days, but Arpin is just the fourth witness to finish his testimony.
The trial was expected to hear from 22 witnesses, leaving the court to ponder how much more time will be needed to reach the finish line.
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, who is overseeing the trial, has identified several dates in October and November.
Lawrence Greenspon, the lawyer representing Lich, said he does not want to set new court dates until the Crown has established a new, more accurate time estimate for its case.
As of Friday, the trial is expected to resume Oct. 11.
Lich and Barber are charged with mischief and counselling others commit offences such as mischief and intimidation for their role in organizing and prolonging the demonstration.
The defence questioned Arpin Friday about how city council and staff attempted to put an end the protest. As the mayor’s chief of staff, Arpin told the court he sat in on every council meeting.
He was grilled about a bylaw change on Feb. 9 last year that banned idling in a vehicle unless the temperature fell at or below -15 C. The bylaw originally allowed idling if the temperature was below 5 C.
“City council … was attempting to freeze out the truckers and their families,” Greenspon told the court.
Arpin said he believed the intention was to bring the demonstration to an end.
Arpin was also involved in the deal between Watson, Lich and other organizers to move trucks out of residential neighbourhoods and onto Wellington Street, in front of Parliament Hill.
He texted back and forth with the convoy organizers’ lawyer Keith Wilson on Feb. 14 and 15 in an exchange that was filed as evidence in the trial.
The texts suggest city staff did not give protest organizers or their lawyers a heads-up about plans to file a court injunction against demonstrators who violated city bylaws.
“Just so you know, it is highly irregular for the city’s lawyers to have done this without providing us lawyers here with notice,” Wilson wrote to Arpin on Feb. 15.
“This could change everything.”
Arpin told Wilson he was under the impression they knew about the court filing, but said in court that he never informed them himself until after the injunction was granted by a judge.
Lawyers representing the convoy organizers were not given an opportunity to oppose the application in court at the time.
The deal between Lich and the mayor fell apart later that day when police would no longer allow trucks to move closer to Parliament.
Arpin confirmed the police service underwent a change in command that day as a result of the police chief’s resignation.
He apologized to Wilson at the time, the text messages show.
“Our goal has always been de-escalation and I know you share this goal,” he texted to Wilson on the 16th.
The Crown hopes to pick up its case in October with eight local witnesses from Ottawa who lived or worked downtown during the Freedom Convoy protest.
Lich and Barber have already admitted that there was mischief taking place in the protest zone.
Greenspon has argued that the testimony of those witnesses would be akin to victim impact statements, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to be heard during the trial.
P
Tamara Lich arrives for her trial at the courthouse in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. Lich and fellow Freedom Convoy organizer Chris Barber are charged with mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Ottawa
The chief of staff for former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson is expected to continue his testimony in the trial of two “Freedom Convoy” protest organizers today before the court takes a two-week break.
Serge Arpin was involved in the mayor’s deal with convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber to move trucks off of residential streets last year.
Arpin and the mayor hoped the deal would result in some 400 trucks moving out of residential neighbourhoods and onto the street along Parliament Hill as the protest went on for weeks.
Lich and Barber are on trial for alleged mischief and counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation and other offences during the protest.
Friday was initially expected to be the final day for the Crown to present its case against them, but legal arguments and other delays have put the court well behind schedule, and Arpin is only the fourth of 22 Crown witnesses expected to testify.
The court is looking for more dates to finish the Crown’s case and leave time for more legal arguments at the end of the trial.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2023.
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