Recently, people who visited the emergency room of an Ontario hospital describe their experience of waiting for treatment or going to bed for a long time.
Their story is part of the anomalous trends seen in state hospitals over the past few months. Spring is usually a time of low emergency department delinquency, but according to the latest Ontario Health statistics , wait times for ER patients to be hospitalized, the highest ever. Reach 6}. As detailed earlier in thereport by
CBC News, the record ER bottleneck is in the emergency room, including the crunch. It is caused by various factors outside. The hospital's ward operates above full capacity and admits patients due to COVID-19 exposure and understaffing due to burnout, , and restricted access to family doctors. I am.
Dozens of patients and their families contacted CBC News to talk about the emergency room. Here are some of them.
My doctor didn't see an enthusiastic child
Mia Hutchinson was on Wednesday night in Toronto in the emergency room of the Chic Kids Hospital in Toronto with her daughter. When I took Thea, the board in waiting room showed a waiting time of three and a half hours.
"So I thought it was probably four or four and a half hours. I didn't expect to be eight hours," Hutchinson said.
"We sat in the hallway with the other three families for about five hours, then moved to the room and waited another three hours."
By the time the family decided to go to the emergency room, Téa had a fever of 39 to 40 degrees for . I did. I had a bad cough for 4 days and became dehydrated.
"We couldn't lower the fever. We called our doctor and allowed her to be taken [to her clinic] for her symptoms. It wasn't done, "Hutchinson said.
"It doesn't make sense when we call the doctor and are told we can't get in because of illness," she said. "I'm not a sick doctor. We went to the emergency room because we were refused to be seen."
Hutchinson says other children are coughing with high fever in the ER. I say I saw it. She believes that like her daughter — could have been treated in the clinic of her doctor and she should have been treated.
Cancer patients endure 3 long waits in the ER
Nancy Hunter tells her husband Kevin from a staff member in the cancer ward of Victoria Hospital in London. He says he received great care, Ontario, but his experience in that emergency room was not ideal.
After Kevin diagnoses lymphoma, a special card instructing cancer ward staff to reach the ER immediately if fever occurs while receiving chemotherapy. Was issued to him.
"They help us with this" Fever Card " to help ER staff in identifying Kevin as a cancer patient. I assured you, "Nancy said. "I had the impression that we were prioritized. Our experience was completely the opposite. No priority was given."
Last fall 2 When he visited the hospital's emergency room three times during the month, his waiting time was more than 10 hours.
"Every time we went to the hospital ER, the waiting time to get a bed was painfully long," Nancy said. "Because Kevin's cancer treatment weakened his immunity, the risks we perceive created another level of anxiety."
While waiting in the emergency department, he Vomited on the floor of the washroom, but did not get a bed for the next few hours. Arriving by ambulance on his third visit did not reduce his waiting time. He was not hospitalized for 13 hours.
Kevin Hunter died of lymphoma in November. The couple had been married for 47 years.
"I still don't understand why very sick cancer patients have to endure hours in any ER," Nancy said.
Sit in a chair for 14 hours and wait for bed for 48 hours
On Wednesday, mid-June, Fiona Hammett's blood pressure dropped and she fainted. She was taken to the emergency room at Durabinsky Hospital in Hamilton. So her son Greg Noonan says he waited 14 hours in her chair before she was seen.
"When she fainted again, her nurse came to help her go to the bathroom, she was showing signs of her stroke," Noonan said. .. "Twenty hours later, they told her she was in the hospital and then provided a stretcher to put her to sleep."
Noonan sent an email to CBC News on Friday morning, 39 hours after Hammett arrived at the ER.
"She is still in a stretcher emergency today because there are no beds available," he writes. "This health care system is broken. These nurses are overworked. They need to do something."
Hammett, after spending more than 48 hours in the emergency room, Finally, he put the bed in the ward at 8 pm, Noonan said. She was hospitalized until her discharge in late June and she is currently waiting for her MRI.
Fracture, ER
A long night at Monarome , she was waiting in the emergency room at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. When I found this story about the Ontario ER backlog, I sent an email to CBC News for nearly 6 hours with a broken right hand.
"It's strange that I came across your article right now. When I'm sitting here. It's very suitable," Romeh wrote.
"I haven't seen a doctor yet," she said. "I'm here for a fracture that requires surgery, and now I can just leave. This is absolutely ridiculous. It feels scary.
Romeh He said he was "frustrated and tired and just defeated", but was worried that leaving the ER would make him feel sick and at risk of injury.
She stayed and participated in what she described as a large early morning conversation about the current state of medical care in Ontario between some patients and a group of her nurses. Did. "They were empathetic and were just trying to deal with the situation they were handed over," Lome said.
She was finally seen by a doctor and was referred to Milton Hospital for surgery in late June.
'Something needs to be changed'
On Her Father's Day, William Walker's blood pressure soared. "He felt very dizzy, had a headache and was nauseated," said his wife Gracewalker. "We didn't want to miss a chance because he has heart disease."
She called Telehealth Ontario for advice and William's symptoms were in the emergency department. I was told that I need to go to. His wait at Lake Ridge Health in Oshawa lasted nine hours.
"Something needs to change when you see very young babies and the elderly waiting for hours to see a doctor. There is, "Grace said.
She and her husband looked like minor injuries such as ankle sprains and saw many people in the ER.
"Surely some of them may have been taken care of in the overtime clinic or waited until the next day to seek treatment," Grace said.
"At some point, one of the nurses came to the waiting room and announced that he would wait for the next 3-4 hours, suggesting emergency treatment at another hospital, etc., or a family member. Doctor. No one worked.
-year-old hip fracture 100
Irene Fraser has been to the emergency room only twice in her life, and that's it. Not. She is noteworthy given that she is 100 years old.
Fraser fell in a long-term care facility on Sunday in mid-June and was taken to the emergency room at Durabinsky Hospital in Hamilton Health Sciences by noon. Her son Jim and Janet Fraser, daughter-in-law of the retired registered nurse, said Irene was still in the hallway at 10 pm, she hadn't seen a doctor, and she drank nothing. Say it wasn't allowed.
"There seemed to be nothing I could do for her until she saw a doctor," she said with her husband. Janet took turns with Irene.
"I was wondering why they didn't start drip on her. I told the desk nurse that dehydration was a problem because she drank nothing all day long. She said she was worried that she might be. She was her in the past. As far as we know, she wasn't taking regular medicine all day. "
Janet knows how many well-educated and competent nurses are, so she doesn't understand why RN and nurse practitioners in the emergency room couldn't order tests or IVs. Hmm.
"No one came to talk to us about her care while we were there, and no one came to her health, her needs, her. Did not ask us about her habits, cognitive abilities, her pain, hearing or vision, health problems, "Janette said.
"We should have been able to provide a lot of the information we needed."
Irene consulted a doctor after midnight. The doctor immediately called Jim and gave a kind and thorough explanation of the benefits and risks of hip surgery with a broken bone.
She is now back in the care facility, recovering from her surgery and receiving physiotherapy.