Advocacy
CAEP is the national advocacy voice for emergency physicians in Canada. One of the many pursuits of CAEP members is to influence outcomes including public-policy and resource allocation. CAEP works to shape decisions within political, economic, social systems and institutions that directly affect patient healthcare.
We are constantly encouraging our membership to mobilize, and allow voices to be heard in the pursuit of democratic ideals. Emergency physicians unite, join the cause and together we will bring forward our daily concerns of patient safety.
Health care experts say eliminating the registration of rifles and shotguns will put health and safety of Canadians at risk
Ottawa, ON, April 28, 2010: Today twenty-eight medical, nursing, allied health and suicide prevention organizations and thirty-three professionals in the same fields, released an open letter to Members of Parliament in order to underscore the importance of the gun registry in helping to prevent domestic murders, accidents and suicides.
National groups including the Canadian Public Health Association, the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions and the Canadian Association of Adolescent Health as well as provincial groups including the Ontario Public Health Association and the Quebec Public Health Association signed a joint letter which underscores the risks firearms present to the health and safety of Canadians and the need for rigorous controls.
At a press conference to publicly release the letter, Dr. Alan Drummond from the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians and an assistant coroner in Perth, Ontario, said: “As a rural emergency physician and coroner, I can safely say that I've never seen a handgun injury. I have however seen my share of injuries and deaths inflicted by rifles and shotguns. I have felt the pain of investigating a double murder-suicide as a result of escalating domestic violence. Suicide, contrary to public opinion, is often an impulsive gesture. Keeping guns away from depressed people is essential. In the assaults and murders I have seen that have involved guns, the perpetrators acted on impulse and the unsafely stored long gun was readily available. Gun-related injury is not just a Toronto problem that involves gangs. It has occurred in my small idyllic rural community and involved people that would otherwise seem quite normal. Registration of firearms is important to ensure accountability and compliance with safe storage.”
Debra Lynkowski, CEO of the Canadian Public Health Association, concurred: “For almost twenty years the Canadian Public Health Association has advocated for stronger gun laws including the licensing of all gun owners and registration of firearms because of their potential to prevent death and injury. We are seeing encouraging results from Canada’s progressive gun laws. Firearm related deaths in Canada have reached a 30 year low and of particular note is the dramatic decline in the misuse of rifles and shotguns, the target of the 1977, the 1991 and the 1995 legislation.”
Dr. Barbara Kane, Staff Psychiatrist, Prince George Regional Hospital Department of Family Practice said in her personal statement: “As a rural physician, I rely on the registry on a regular basis to help police remove firearms from dangerous and suicidal patients. I have personally been involved in a number of cases where it proved its value. Suggestions that it is ‘worthless’ are without basis.”
Linda Silas, President of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions said: “The Government claims licensing is sufficient to keep Canadians safe. However, the registration of Canada’s seven million rifles and shotguns is essential to enforcing gun owner accountability and to keeping firearms away from dangerous or unbalanced people. That is why the Supreme Court of Canada said: ‘The registration provisions cannot be severed from the rest of the Act. The licensing provisions require everyone who possesses a gun to be licensed; the registration provisions require all guns to be registered. These portions of the Firearms Act are both tightly linked to Parliament’s goal of promoting safety by reducing the misuse of any and all firearms. Both portions are integral and necessary to the operation of the scheme.’ We are calling on our Members of Parliament to put public safety over politics and defeat Bill C-391 which will repeal the registration of rifles and shotguns.”
Lucie Thibodeau, President of the Quebec Public Health Association added, “In the Province of Quebec, the rates of death in rural communities are much higher than in big cities because firearms are more easily available. A rifle or a shotgun in the hands of angry or disturbed individuals can also have tragic consequences. The licensing of gun owners and registration of firearms has been a key part of our injury prevention strategy with significant results. In fact, our association fought for this law all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. We are urging Members of Parliament to do the right thing for public health and reject Bill C-391: It is imperative that each and every Member of Parliament that believes in prevention vote against this legislation. Every vote counts.”
The letter stresses:
- most firearm deaths in Canada are suicides and the guns most often used are rifles and shotguns.
- when firearms are available, domestic homicides are more likely to involve multiple victims and end in suicide.
- gun related deaths have been reduced since the latest waves of legislative reforms were introduced.
- the greatest progress is in the deaths associated with rifles and shotguns —weapons that have been subject to most of the new measures.
- licensing works hand in hand with firearm registration to keep legal guns in the hands of legal gun owners. Because it allows guns to be traced back to their last legal owner, registration helps prevent illegal sales or straw purchases to unlicensed (and potentially dangerous) individuals.
-registration also helps police with the temporarily removal of firearms in households where there may be a risk for suicide or violence.
-this is why the Supreme Court maintained that the registration component is critical to enforcing licensing provisions and cannot be severed from the system.
The letter concludes: “As health professionals, we know the importance of investing in prevention, whether in road safety or prevention of infectious diseases. We cannot easily measure prevention, but we can certainly measure the effects of ignoring it. Six different coroner’s inquests recommended the licensing of gun owners and registration of all firearms. Indeed, our daily practice informs us of the very real risks associated with firearms and of the value of a strong gun control law. That is why we must speak out against Bill C-391, the private member’s bill currently before the House of Commons which aims to abolish the long gun registry.”
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Recent statement by Dr. Alan Drummond
Chair, Public Affairs, CAEP
The Ontario government is to be congratulated for being the first provincial government in Canada to address the issue of prolonged waits for emergency care. They are taking the first tentative steps in finally resolving what should be considered a health care anomaly.
Waiting for an extended time in an emergency waiting room, in the back of an ambulance or in a emergency corridor is not a matter of mere inconvenience; it is a matter of public safety. Studies have conclusively shown that waiting for emergency care is associated with increased risk of medical complications including unnecessary death, increased health care costs and health care system gridlock.
The root cause is an absolute lack of hospital ward beds. There has been a 30-40% reduction in hospital bed capacity in Ontario since the mid-1990s and, of the remaining beds, 20% are occupied by patients who should be out of hospital and in a nursing home or convalescent care. Lack of hospital bed capacity leads to a situation in which admitted patients inappropriately occupy stretchers in the emergency treatment area for extended periods of time and causes a backlog in the waiting room and ambulances waiting on ER ramps to offload their patients.
Programs aimed at diverting patients away from the ER, however, are a pointless exercise that will have no effect. Studies have clearly shown that patients with non-urgent problems do not cause ER overcrowding and that sending them away from the ER does nothing substantial to lessen ER wait times. Given the faltering economy the government should use tax money wisely and focus their efforts on where it will do the most good. In the case of ER crowding, the money is on the beds.
