Here I sit in QEII emerg, my leg that had surgery four days ago has developed a nasty purple patch so I’m in to make sure I’m not heading for blood clot land. I’m sitting in what are likely the most uncomfortable cheap office chairs ever made, for the last four hours. There is no comfort to be found. I have pulled up a coffee table for a footstool so I can keep my foot elevated as suggested. They can’t give me a pillow, so I need to rest my bruise on the hardwood.  They tell me it will probably only be another four hours. I’m looking around at a large sad group of people, either sick or injured waiting and waiting. Maybe someone should replace Stephen McNeil’s comfy executive office chair with one of these particularly shitty ones and see if he could sit eight hours. —Unhappy camper
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2017.
I looked at the CDHA website and it says they assign degrees of urgency to people when they register at emergency. Your needs were deemed lesser than that of others waiting for assessment.
Someone once brought a kid to emerge to get stitches taken out. I wonder what priority they were assigned. Many so-called medical emergencies can be assessed at the walk-in clinic freeing up the hospital for actual emergencies.
Stephen McNeil has nothing to do with a) your leg or b) the hospital’s emergency room set up. You’re grasping at straws.
Complain to the people ahead of you, in the beds. They probably came in with a cold or a hang nail and because they were there before you arrived, finally got brought in because they don’t refuse people medical care for hang nails.
It could also be that triage assessed you as having a bruise – not a blood clot (OMG, what fucking nonsense) and sees you as much as a priority as the knob with the cold.
If you’re well enough to bitch, you ain’t dying’!
Triage
The overall idea (brainstormed by the Harper Gov) was to make wait times unbearable… the ole supply and demand angle.
Once people are absolutely fed-up in arms about the wait times and unsatisfactory service of our FREE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, the Gov will introduce a very attractive PRIVATE health ‘care’ system where….. for example, you would be able to walk in to any health care facility (or a specialized one), walk up to the ‘pay’ window and get immediate (or a less of a wait) service for your injury.
Unions and Elite will be the first to experience this new form of health care.
8 hours waiting in ER? That’s a walk in the park, OB. What do you want for free? A Lazy Boy recliner and foot massage? Piss off & suck it up like the rest of us.
What a lame pathetic dig at Stephen McNeil. Pun absolutely intended. You’re probably a teacher looking for more sick pay.
Socialized medicine at it’s best. Oh and on top of the ridiculous taxes we already pay to support a system that barely works we can soon enjoy paying a carbon tax on everything courtesy of our idiot prime minister. But then again “Canadians want a carbon tax.”
Hmm where in the US should I try to immigrate to?
I’ve only ever been to emergency a few times. The one time I had a serious and painful injury I was triaged and seen right away. The other times I was triaged and waited for hours. In retrospect I really shouldn’t have gone there those other times. Could have waited and gone to a walk in clinic the next morning. Mea culpa!
The system works for what it is designed – treating serious injuries or illness requiring immediate attention such as suspected strokes. If everyone else went to a walk-in or a family doctor the system would work much better.
On the other hand, if they threw resources at emergency and improved wait times then more and more people would go there for day to day treatment. That’s not an efficient system. People need to be more judicious about using emergency. Try calling the nursing hotline (811) first for advice on whether you should get yourself to emergency.
Here’s a suggestion. Put a walk-in clinic next to emergency, when someone does not belong in emergency send them down the hall.
i’m still awaiting any allowed comments for the chicago 4.
or does the “bitch” allow freedom of speech??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGnTE5Kujz…
awesome video!!
^^^
I didn’t understand a word of what was being said, other the the n-word. I’m old.
too bad you weren’t muslim or some other refugee they would have been falling all over themselves to help you.
We all share resources, including the overcrowded emergency room; please only use it during emergencies. (ps- 811 is crap and will direct all people to the emergency room, use your common sense)
Careful guys this is the Coast any mention of any group (other than straight white me and how terrible they are), is racist, sexist, homophobic or any other dumb label lefties use to silence dissenting opinions.
Not sure if this is a well known fact, but according to the docs and nurses we spoke with once we actually got it, ER closes for the general public between midnight and 6am.
Pretty sure the ERs in the city do not close to the “general public” or are only open to the privileged few…
Why are you at the ER rather than your doctor’s office or walk-in clinic. Too many people use the ER as a doctor’s office rather tan for what it is supposed to be used for – EMERGENCIES.
…or maybe fucking idiots should stop clogging up the emergency room for a Common Fucking COLD!!
People are fucking idiotic assholes and ruin everything for everyone else. Welcome to HRM,land of complete fucking morons. Good luck!
DT thinks ER misuse is exclusively an HRM problem? Hahahaha!
say hello to NSHA