The problem with our health care situation is that the people responsible want to study everything rather than getting out & doing something to correct the situation.
Emergency care is in a real crisis situation in our hospitals.
This is due to inadequate facilities to handle the patient load, and lack of medical staff to provide treatment. More emergency units are being closed all the time, putting more pressure on the remaining locations.
The hospital in my area has a department that has 6 exam rooms,2 trauma units & 1 room with 4 beds. This is entirely inadequate for the size of the area served.
On a Sunday last summer I had need of treatment because of severe abdominal distress. I was checked in at 12 noon. At 5 PM the triage nurse told everyone in the waiting area that they would not be seen until Monday AM because of the backlog of patients already in treatment. If we left to come back then, we would have to enter the lineup all over again.
Shortly after this, I lost consciousness because of the pain I was experiencing.
When I regained awareness in the treatment area I observed that all treatment rooms were occupied, 6 patients were in reclining chairs along the hallway & 4 more of us were on stretchers. One stretcher had been there for more than 24 hours.
There were 2 physicians & 1 emergency surgeon available to care for this number of people.
At one time there were also 5 ambulances waiting for attention; some had been there for 10 hours. The staff were RUNNING trying to keep up with treatment requirements.
So the cause of this scene was the severe lack of adequate treatment area and lack of physician availability.
The hospital staff present were doing all in their ability to help us; they were not at fault.
These scenes take place in most hospital emergency departments in the province.
The problem could be corrected by providing adequate physical space & increasing the number of available physicians. Throwing money at the nurses as they are requesting is not going to improve this sort of condition. Why not put the funds toward getting physicians that can handle the load.
It seems as though the government wants to eliminate physicians from patient care.
This is nothing new. The “status quo” has been very resistant to change and this goes back many years and has involved all political parties. Nothing changes, the system has been and continues to be almost broken. There are good people who know what to do and they need to make a plan and stick to it. Our Health Care system still works most times if you are really sick, but otherwise needs intensive care to make it better for everyone. As you say it not good enough to be “most of the time”. It is worth fighting tor to make dreams come true, and avoid just having a health care system that is only dreams for many! It can be done!
This is nothing new. The “status quo” has been very resistant to change and this goes back many years and has involved all political parties. Nothing changes, the system has been and continues to be almost broken. There are good people who know what to do and they need to make a plan and stick to it. Our Health Care system still works most times if you are really sick, but otherwise needs intensive care to make it better for everyone. As you say it not good enough to be “most of the time”. It is worth fighting tor to make dreams come true, and avoid just having a health care system that is only dreams for many!
The problem with our health care situation is that the people responsible want to study everything rather than getting out & doing something to correct the situation.
Emergency care is in a real crisis situation in our hospitals.
This is due to inadequate facilities to handle the patient load, and lack of medical staff to provide treatment. More emergency units are being closed all the time, putting more pressure on the remaining locations.
The hospital in my area has a department that has 6 exam rooms,2 trauma units & 1 room with 4 beds. This is entirely inadequate for the size of the area served.
On a Sunday last summer I had need of treatment because of severe abdominal distress. I was checked in at 12 noon. At 5 PM the triage nurse told everyone in the waiting area that they would not be seen until Monday AM because of the backlog of patients already in treatment. If we left to come back then, we would have to enter the lineup all over again.
Shortly after this, I lost consciousness because of the pain I was experiencing.
When I regained awareness in the treatment area I observed that all treatment rooms were occupied, 6 patients were in reclining chairs along the hallway & 4 more of us were on stretchers. One stretcher had been there for more than 24 hours.
There were 2 physicians & 1 emergency surgeon available to care for this number of people.
At one time there were also 5 ambulances waiting for attention; some had been there for 10 hours. The staff were RUNNING trying to keep up with treatment requirements.
So the cause of this scene was the severe lack of adequate treatment area and lack of physician availability.
The hospital staff present were doing all in their ability to help us; they were not at fault.
These scenes take place in most hospital emergency departments in the province.
The problem could be corrected by providing adequate physical space & increasing the number of available physicians. Throwing money at the nurses as they are requesting is not going to improve this sort of condition. Why not put the funds toward getting physicians that can handle the load.
It seems as though the government wants to eliminate physicians from patient care.
John Archibald | May 23, 2019 |
This is nothing new. The “status quo” has been very resistant to change and this goes back many years and has involved all political parties. Nothing changes, the system has been and continues to be almost broken. There are good people who know what to do and they need to make a plan and stick to it. Our Health Care system still works most times if you are really sick, but otherwise needs intensive care to make it better for everyone. As you say it not good enough to be “most of the time”. It is worth fighting tor to make dreams come true, and avoid just having a health care system that is only dreams for many! It can be done!
Allan Purdy | May 17, 2019 |
This is nothing new. The “status quo” has been very resistant to change and this goes back many years and has involved all political parties. Nothing changes, the system has been and continues to be almost broken. There are good people who know what to do and they need to make a plan and stick to it. Our Health Care system still works most times if you are really sick, but otherwise needs intensive care to make it better for everyone. As you say it not good enough to be “most of the time”. It is worth fighting tor to make dreams come true, and avoid just having a health care system that is only dreams for many!
Allan Purdy | May 17, 2019 |