Since the start of the pandemic two years ago, said Dr. Louis P. Perrault, a veteran Montreal cardiac surgeon, the province’s beleaguered health-care system has been held together mostly through the sheer will of staff.
“But there’s a limit to the triumph of the human spirit to save the system,” said Perrault, president of Quebec’s Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons.
He’s watched staff work countless extra hours to keep the system going, but he said he doesn’t believe the situation is sustainable.
Chronic underfunding, insufficient beds and inadequate staffing have plagued the system for years, he said: COVID-19 simply made it
