A troubling new virus hasn’t officially made an appearance in Canada yet, but already health officials have launched into action.

Clearly we learned a thing or two from the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed 44 people in Canada, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area, sickened hundreds and led to the quarantine of thousands more.

Ontario’s healthcare system, supported by municipal public health departments and the federal government’s Public Health Agency, has vastly improved its procedures to identify and contain the spread of an infectious disease.

Hospitals have made significant improvements in how they protect patients and staff from all infectious diseases, and those procedures are presumably followed with extra vigour during times of heightened concern.

Thanks to the Chinese government’s decision to sound the alarm this time, rather than try to hush it up as it tragically did with SARS, there’s a reliable test for this new coronavirus. Our numerous health agencies can collect and share information more easily.

Ontario’s health minister, Christine Elliott, declared the new virus a reportable disease and because of advances data gathering will happen on up-to-date computer systems, rather than the equivalent of sticky notes.

All of that puts us well ahead of the game.

“It’s really important for everyone to know that we have the necessary processes and procedures and safeguards in place to make sure that we protect all the people of Ontario,” Elliott said on Wednesday.

There’s every reason for Ontarians to be reassured by the advances in “processes and procedures” and the application of many lessons learned the hard way during SARS.

But when — and given world travel patterns it is almost certainly when, not if — this new virus does arrive in the Toronto area, how will our hospitals cope?

Ontario’s hospitals, as we know well, are strained to the point of breaking even at the best of times.

Last June was the worst June on record for hospital overcrowding and the average wait to be admitted to hospital from an emergency department topped 16 hours. That was before the winter flu-related spikes that tend to create havoc in emergency rooms. Surgeries are routinely cancelled because of overcrowding.

And just this week a CBC News report on Ontario’s “hallway medicine” problem, which sees patients treated on beds in make-do locations, found it to be the new norm with many hospitals regularly operating beyond 100 per cent capacity.

But now that we’re contemplating the possibility of an unknown health threat coming our way, one that has already led China to essentially lock down five cities, we’re told Ontario’s hospitals are just fine.

Won’t overcrowding in hospitals be an issue, Elliott was asked?

“No.”

Indeed, she was categorical that hospitals bursting at the seams with patients won’t pose a problem for isolating patients with the virus if necessary.

“Those facilities can be made available.”

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Excellent. Where?

If the government wants to instill confidence that Ontario’s health care system is up for this potential challenge she should be a lot clearer on this point.

The report of the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health detailed the many “systemic deficiencies” that led to that crisis being worse than it should have been. The very first point on the list: “lack of surge capacity in the clinical and public health systems.”

Ontario doesn’t have routine capacity in its hospitals right now, let alone surge capacity.

No matter how well we organize the healthcare system and communicate and coordinate, the actual provision of health services comes down to doctors and nurses on the ground working in the emergency rooms, treatment rooms, hallways and broom closets of our hospitals.

It’s instructive to recall that the havoc of SARS in Ontario essentially began with a sick man left in a crowded emergency room for 16 hours.

Ontarians can be forgiven for thinking such a scenario is as possible as ever. Indeed, that was the average wait time last June.

There’s still much we don’t know about this new virus, including how easily it’s spread and how deadly it is. There’s hope for positive news on both those fronts and, for the time being, the World Health Organization has not declared a public health emergency.

We can hope all this heightened concern amounts to an emergency drill for a crisis that doesn’t happen. But new viruses are a growing global concern and we won’t be immune.

Health officials are right to point out the many fixes that have happened since SARS, but let’s not overlook what hasn’t yet been fixed.

An overstretched network of doctors, nurses, hospitals and public health agencies protected the nation’s health during SARS and, despite significant improvements to protocols and procedures, that’s what protects us still.