1. Two of the staff at QE11 refered to my boyfriend as “the big guy” … shallow assholes 2. Do they really think that tv explaining waiting times helps? 4 people in waiting for 3 fucking hours!!! His appendix could fucking burst as far as I am afraid and buddy just shrugs “well it’s busy in there”. Maybe if you hadn’t let in the girl who came after him first when he is crying in pain!!! 3. Lazy bastards I know they have cleaners but would it kill them to stare away from the computer for one minute to pick up a chip bag or offer some fucking water?!!!!?!?!?!????? COULDN’T STAY THERE….left my poor boyfriend alone with the jerks 🙁
—S’up
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2009.
Unfortunately, pain is not life-threatening. They triage people in the ER based on severeness of the injury, not how much pain you are in. 3 hrs is not that long of a wait really, especially for an appendix problem in the early stages. Appendix pain is one of the worst I have experienced, but it hurts a hell of a lot even before it anywhere near ready to pop. Sorry the people in the ER were not more helpful and polite to you though.
thing is OP, if you came in from a car crash with significant bleeding, broken bones and on a stretcher, would you want someone with a much less serious injury to go ahead of you?
everyone has waited in cue at the hospital, and yeah its frustrating as hell sometimes. ive gotten up and left a few times.
so maybe next time, jam your boyfriend’s arm in the car door on the way in.
I agree. If your arm does not slow down, it is not an emergency.
On the other hand, when someone breaks their arm, that is indeed an emergency. Just saying.
umm..anyone notice how she stated that the OP left her “poor boyfriend there” obviously it was more of an inconvenience for the OP to be there and nothing to do with the seriousness of the boyfriends injury/ condition. Good to know you support your loved ones in times of need…
However, when going into an emergency room be prepared to wait, if you go in with an attitude that you will be in and out of the emergency room…your in for a loooonnnng wait. 3 hours is actually a pretty good waiting time.
I noticed they took the sign down at the childrens hospital that stated usually min 2 hour wait depending on the emergency. If they can wait so can he. if you were so worried about him then you should of stayed.
how do you “stare away” from something?
also, what miles said.
Triage is the name of the game in the ER, and that’s what sounds like has happened. Get over it, and realize his injury was not that important. Oh, and way to show him how you care by up and leaving. Next thing you know you’re gonna be writing another bitch, but this one will have a red tag beside it titled “Boring break-up Story”.
Maybe they should have offered you a four course meal.
I think it’s fine to leave if you have to and if they’re not hemmorhaging to death…come on. I wouldn’t want my SO to lose their job just because I “need” company in the ER for something non-life-threatening. At the same time it kinda shows that obviously her “big guy” could take care of himself even if he was in pain…and in the time she was there, how about HER getting him a drink of water/bag of chips? It’s not the freakin Ritz.
Wow. I had to wait at the DG and hated it, but I stayed with my husband for 8 fucking hours before the doctors forced me to go home to bed. 3 hours is pretty darn good for downtown Halifax.
Water fountains, drink machines. Everywhere.
I genuinely feel bad for your BF, BUT:
1) Since when is calling someone “the big guy” shallow? Do you know even what shallow means?
2) Were you under the impression that outpatients is a first-come-first-serve system? That girl that came in later was deemed to have higher priority by the triage nurse/doctor and therefore was treated first. I’m guessing their knowledge in this area exceeds your own.
3) If the sight of a chip bag on the floor was angering you so much, why didn’t YOU just pick it up? Why didn’t YOU get him a glass of water? Fountains and vending machines are all over the place.
And you were so upset by these things, you chose to leave your boyfriend there? He was the one in intense pain, but you couldn’t stand it any longer? You sound like a real catch.
my thoughts exactly mrman
A few things will get you seen by ER docs the fastest:
1. chest pain
2. extreme bleeding
3. head trauma/brain issues (seizures)
4. hysterics (friend of mine went into the ER while having an extreme anxiety attack going on its second hour and got in asap)
5. can’t breathe (bonus points if you’re a T1 diabetic — they took me in asap because they thought I might be acidotic)
6. brought in by ambulance
It sucks your BF had to wait…but I’m sure they weren’t just fucking around. Your BF actually probably bumped people out of cue, to be honest. The ER goes on a most serious injury/illness first basis…maybe you should’ve called an ambulance? Ambulances’ll get you in the special door!
Let’s not forget that the whole thing is FREE. I guess you get what you pay for, you dumb cow.
FREE? Surely you jest. You sound like an American. We pay a hell of a lot of taxes for this FREE system.
Only suckers pay taxes.
No, beard, only responsible Canadians pay taxes. That’s why we have such a great country as we do. Know this, you’ll be found out eventually and then the rest of us won’t have to pay for people like you to live in this country for free. Fucking turd…
And it’s not just INCOME taxes that support the health care system — it’s the HST that goes towards it as well…so even those not paying income taxes still manage to support our health care system.
I have a friend who lives in the UK and she has insurance that covers their private health care system over there…she said the differences are striking. She had to have her knee operated on (dislocated knee cap that was tearing her ligaments) and the NHS told her she didn’t need an operation….when she went to the private clinic they told her she needed one asap, got her in right away and covered her VERY expensive rehab post-surgery. She also had her own suite at the private hospital and her own nurse. She’s not rich or anything: she has a job that doesn’t pay that well, but she said it’s worth it just for the health benefits alone…too bad Canadians are too stubborn to let anything like this happen. OH NOES NOT A TWO TEARED SYSTEM OH NOES OUR SHITTY HEALTHCARE WILL GO DOWN THE DRAIN. Fuck. I’m pretty sure they even have universal coverage on drugs over in the UK too.
Shit.
QE11 (eleven)? I was under the impression it was the QEII (2). Learn your Roman numerals OP!!
Yes lady you are a fully qualified Canadian. You passed the litter test; why the hell should you pick it up when you can wait until a government employee comes along.
That’s the attitude that built Canada, NOT.
PK the UK system is flawed as well.
As for 2-tier health care, let’s put it this way. Health care costs money no matter where it comes from. Canada has line ups because we have more people needing care than we have people and infrastructure to administer that care. The ONLY solution is to put more resources on the system or retool the system to meet demand.
So, do you really think that if you now introduce for-profit hospitals and for-profit insurance companies that YOUR out of pocket expenses (taxes AND private insurance) will be less than if we just added more resources to our current system?
Our health care model is a good one. It only suffers because the government is not living up to it’s commitment to universal health care by not implementing the proper solutions. Not one of the recommendations from the Romanow Report have been implemented. Many other studies have given good suggestions and none of them have been implemented.
Instead, the only action that seems to have been taken is setting wait time goals. What good does that do if you aren’t taking any action to meet those goals? Well, it lets the government look back in a few years and tell us all that health care is failing because we couldn’t meet those goals.
Health care is salvageable, but the government is suffocating it by not funding it properly.
OMG! NO! A 3 hour wait for possible appendicitis! My last 3 hospital trips included:
A 5 1/2 hour wait to have my finger sewn back together after almost cutting it off on a table saw at work.
A 6 hour wait to get two double butterfly stitches after having 3 teeth put through my lip.
A 5 hour wait after having my jaw dislocated.
Suck it up and deal princess. Your 3 hour wait time was nothing. Be glad that you got in that quickly. This is healthcare, not fast food. Moron.
consider the time of your arrival. when i went into emergency witht he same problem (appendix), i waited till the dead of the night before to go. if you show up on a friday evening at say 9 o’clock, expect to spend some fun hours watching drunk idiots pile in after fights.
and Pretty Kitty, its probably not the best idea to post hints on how to quicker get ER service. now people like the OP will start abusing it, and people with real issues will get bumped back. everyone knows a trick or two, no need to spread ’em, me thinks anyways.
also, thebeardedonion, i love your point. i was going to mention something along those lines, but then saw yours.
I assumed when she said “pick up a chip bag” she meant “get one for him from the vending machine or their own special supply.” If she actually meant “pick up litter from the floor” well, that’s probably the janitor’s job, lol
I agree with Miles on the two-tier system. It almost certainly wouldn’t solve anything, except give the rich a fast-track to treatment. It would actually weaken the publicly funded system by drawing doctors and nurses into private clinics where they could work better hours in less stressful environments for more money.
I just can’t understand why government doesn’t increase funding to medical schools so that they can train more doctors. There are thousands of perfectly capable students turned down every year because schools are at capacity. Why can’t they increase the capacity? Who loses?
Mrman…. I lose when they add funds to medical schools. That comes straight off my pay.
Why dont they have doctors pay for their own school, who loses then? If you feel the need to subsidize their education, do it AFTER they have the training.. by paying xx dollars/year to doctors who trained and work in NS. Because spending my money to train doctors that will work in US, Alberta, NB, etc seems like a dumb idea.
Oh I know the UK system is flawed as hell, Miles, but, I think those who CAN pay should be able to because it gets them their health care faster and it gets them out of the queue in the public system, because let’s face it: government isn’t going to put more money into Canadian health care. It’s a really sad reality. I realize I’m being a bit idealistic here, but, if it CAN work in other countries…every system has its problems, but it does work for the most part.
And you can’t really knock the universal drug coverage in the UK…I’d wet myself if we had something like that here. You gotta hand it to the UK on that count.
Just on the wait times: my mom waited 5 hours to have an MRI when she was brought into the ER after she had a case of amnesia. She has a history of seizure and has visited the ER many times via ambulance for said seizure disorder. At that point they didn’t even know if she had had a stroke or what was going on with her. And it took another 4 hours to get the results. Meanwhile, there were people in there who had been in the ER for days because they had no beds and they NEEDED to be in the hospital. One older gentleman had had a heart attack, I believe and was in the hallway on a cot with no privacy whatsoever. Very humiliating for him, I can only imagine.
Friggin People: Do you have any idea how much it costs to train a doctor? After four years of undergrad, you think they can just shovel over another hundred grand? You’d like for them to go to school for four years, train for another four years for peanuts, and THEN pay back this loan? Seriously? That’s the answer you’re suggesting?
In comparison, the additional money that would come off your pay to put, say, a thousand more people a year through med school would be miniscule. And they wouldn’t all go away; there are amazing benefits offered to doctors to stay in NS or the maritimes, and many new graduates would prefer to stay.
Wait until you or a loved one is in desperate need of medical treatment, or even a family physician. The extra $50 a year (and that’s an over estimate, I’m sure) wouldn’t seem so bad.
When I was about 10, I split my head open, skating at CHP. I waited for 5 hours, Bleeding from my head at DGH. I only needed 6 stitches and had a concussion, but I still had to wait. It sucked.
Actually PK, the only way your example of rich people who can pay getting out of the public line-up works is if there are MORE doctors. That’s goes back to the same problem we have here….too many patients and not enough health service resources. Any answer that will solve our problem involves ADDING more resources to the current system.
You can then debate the pros and cons of 2-tiered and private versus public, but the only way to meet the demands on the system is to use the resources we have more efficiently or add more resources. (BTW: Caps are emphasis, not to be rude or anything)
I personally think that the idea of “let those who can pay, pay” is in direct opposition to the concept of universal health care. People should be treated based on need, not income.