*In today’s edition of the Globe and Mail, Robert Matas reports that the family of a woman who died in a hospital parking lot plans to sue because the only response to the emergency situation by staff inside the hospital was to call 911.

Jessica Peace was dying in the hospital parking lot when Jim Roberts ran into the hospital for help.

“Ms. Peace’s death came 16 months after an 88-year-old man died of cardiac arrest outside a residence care facility next to the hospital, fuelling suspicion the institution has a policy of calling 911, rather than responding immediately to those in need”

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Here is an example where protocol trumped common sense and a life may have been lost because of it.

The hospital staff must have felt that emergency situations outside* of the hospital ER are outside of their jurisdiction and within that of the ambulance staff and union.

In a figurative example, Ms. Peace’s death was merely the burnt-out light bulb in your office unable to be replaced until two members from the building maintenance union could come and do the job.

When did Canada’s healthcare system place the territory of unions over the life and care of the patient?

When did a job become worthy of an individual instead of the individual being worthy of the job? And when did the value of a life become worthy of neither?