News

Message from President & TAC BOD

June 9, 2020

Dear TAC members,

Like the rest of the world, the daily routines of the trauma care community have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This invisible threat, with no rapid test, has added another layer to the complexities of treating the injured patient.

In many ways trauma care and COVID-19 are at right angles to each other, in that they conflict with each other. Trauma requires speed and decisive action; COVID-19 requires us to slow down to protect our trainees, our colleagues and ourselves.

Many programs have already risen to this challenge by creative improvising and creating innovative solutions to work around this new threat and reality. We have provided guidelines from TAC member’s home hospitals, which can be review and adapted for every institution’s unique situation.

Because of TAC members’ unique skills, experience in disaster management, disposition, and ability to cope with chaotic, and rapidly changing situations, many of us have been called to step in to lead the emergency responses at many levels of health care and government.

TAC as an organization will survive this challenge, and we are already planning for a future meeting and looking at new ways of improving trauma care in Canada, without the need of large gatherings.

Although many of our members have been hard at work re-organizing prehospital systems, emergency departments, intensive care units, operating rooms and patient wards coping with this crisis we must continue our work in support of our communities and our teams. There will be increased trauma case volumes as the economic restrictions are lifted across the country and the better weather arrives. I encourage all members to stay in contact with fellow members and share experiences and prepare our local teams while respecting physical distancing for an oncoming trauma season, which will be quite different than most of us have ever experienced.

We are confident that all TAC members are doing more than their share and are leading the way in developing and maintaining excellence in trauma care across the country during these extraordinary times.

Dr Tarek Razek, President & Board of Directors