Hospital patients dying for help

[Sgent]

Source: Edmonton Journal

There is a "crisis right now" in Edmonton hospital emergency rooms, where some people are dying or having heart attacks as they wait an average of six hours for treatment, Dr. Felix Soibelman says. "We've had numerous, numerous adverse events in our waiting room, and these people suffer," Soibelman, president of the Edmonton Emergency Physicians Association, said Wednesday.

"People even have heart attacks in our city's waiting rooms and we recognize that we can't get to them. We've even had deaths in our waiting rooms. These events have happened. They have been recorded. It doesn't happen often, but it certainly does happen, and the bottom line is it shouldn't happen."

...

Many of those waiting in emergency wards are seniors who end up on hard foam stretchers for three or four days, he said.

Emergency lights are constantly on, bells and talking are continuous, and staff have a hard time getting the patients regular meals, helping them to the bathroom or cleaning them, he said.

Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Health/Hospital+Patients+dying+help/1355451/story.html

[shireen]

1. be sure to read the comments too.

it's quite interesting to see local readers respond to the article.

What I'd like to know more about is how the ERs are funded, and if they're keeping pace with population growth and technical advancements.

A friend of mine who lives in a rural area in Ontario has similar complaints about the local ERs.

[Festivito]

7. Some blame "King Ralph" Klien. Is this just in Alberta?

We get so little information about anything from the Canadian health system.

Some Canadians I meet over here ASSUME we like their system and are reticent to talk about their superior system so as not to appear snooty toward US.

[quidam56]

2. We need a Cure for Health Care,

In East Tennessee, Profit care comes ahead of Patient Care http://www.wisecountyissues.com Affordable health care for everyone will be no good until we also demand a higher standard of care than we have now.

[buckrogers1965]

3. They could, you know, TREAT THEM.

Of course that would require that the proper number of workers be put on shift and paid.

Properly triaging patients as they come in and sending people with colds and other non emergencies to a lower level medical care facility than the ER would also help.

[FreakinDJ]

4. So are we throwing rocks at Universal Healthcare?

If so FUCK OFF - Canada is the Worst possible example

My mother died with the "Best Healthcare System in the World" (USA) because the doctors drug their feet on test to save cost

Here we give them 2 asprin and send them home to die - can't have that bad publicity them dieing in the waiting room

[tsuki]

5. My mother was in the emergency room from 12 PM to 7 PM before

she was admitted. And it was not even busy.

[FlaGranny]

6. One thing that many

forget about emergency rooms is that a portion of the patients arrive by ambulance. Those are the most serious (usually) and get first attention. Walk-ins usually wait hours upon hours. I guess the idea is - if you can walk you're not that sick. I'm talking USA here. I've spent many, many, many hours in emergency rooms when my mother was in her last days, so I have a lot of experience with waiting.

One of our local hospitals (really the only one I am familiar with) a few years ago set up an entirely new system and, in my opinion, it is superior. Patients coming to the walk-in emergency room of course are triaged. Most patients with non life-threatening problems never see a physician. They see nurse practitioners. Those nurses suture wounds, take care of fractures not requiring surgery and illnesses of most types. They order the appropriate x-rays, lab studies, and medications. Their huge waiting room usually only has a few people sitting in it. The physicians are freed to treat the most serious cases. The waiting time in the ER has been cut tremendously.

Of course, this great system doesn't help uninsured patients to pay for it, but it certainly is efficient. Triage at its best.

[Festivito]

8. Could see nothing else on edmontonjournal, now NOTHING on it.

Can't even retrieve this article any more.

Anyone else?

[daleo]

9. The Edmonton Journal is owned by a right wing media conglomerate

It used to be a fairly good paper, but I gave up on it a few months back, as the right-wing propaganda level got too high for me. The conglomerate in question, Canwest, will probably go bankrupt within 2 weeks. So, while the Canadian healthcare system isn't perfect (nothing is), take these reports with a grain of salt.

[Festivito]

10. It seems the person who died might not have been save-able.

And they buried that far enough in that the average morAn-hater would miss it, let alone catch the inference.

It does seem to be written in duplicitous RW haze.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. I live in a small town in Northern Ontario, Canada - by small, I mean 2,500 souls

.
.
.

I go to emerg, - if it's an open wound of some sort I get IMMEDIATE attention

If it's something like a sore elbow, pain, cough, whatever I might have to wait a half hour or so.

Our ambulances are on CONSTANT patrol with certified paramedics - ready to take care of a 911 call for medical, highway accident, whatever.

We have a heliport to transport patients to larger better equipped hospitals if necessary.

I've lived in larger places, and never had to wait more than an hour or two

So either Edmonton has a real problem,

or someone is exaggerating

OH

and I never get a bill for this - I've paid for it with my taxes over the last 40 years . . .