For Immediate Release – ARCH delivers Submissions and Recommendations for Ontario’s Triage Protocol Draft dated July 7, 2020
TORONTO, July 20, 2020 – ARCH Disability Law Centre has delivered submissions on, and following its review of, the second draft of Ontario’s Clinical Triage Protocol for Major Surge in COVID Pandemic (Ontario Health) to the Bioethics Table. ARCH continues to be concerned that the Triage Protocol will discriminate or disproportionately impact persons from disability communities.
On July 7, 2020, the Bioethics Table provided several stakeholders, including ARCH, with a second draft of the Triage Protocol. This was followed shortly after by a Roundtable discussion co-convened by the Bioethics Table and the Ontario Human Rights Commission, where stakeholders could make their concerns known to the drafters.
In its submissions, ARCH sets out eleven concerns and corresponding recommendations. The recommendations address the framework within which the Triage Protocol is drafted, procedural concerns including the lack of wider consultation, and substantive concerns including the continued inclusion of the Clinical Frailty Scale.
“While this second version of the Triage Protocol is a slight improvement on the first, there are still very concerning issues that must be immediately dealt with before the Protocol is finalized and distributed to hospitals for implementation should surge hit,” said lawyer Robert Lattanzio, Executive Director of ARCH. “ARCH urges the Bioethics Table to give due weight to our recommendations, which were developed following consultations with key stakeholders in the disability community, and to incorporate all eleven into the next version of the Triage Protocol.”
To view ARCH’s written submissions in full go to:
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Contact:
Robert Lattanzio, Executive Director
ARCH Disability Law Centre
Toll-free: 1-866-482-2724 extension 2233
Email: robert.lattanzio@arch.clcj.ca