Took my partner’s niece to a downtown Halifax hospital emergency department and it wasn’t the kids’ one. She had sprained her ankle. No wheelchair to be had, for security guards looking for one and/or crutches. She ended up hopping in the door then was given a computer chair to wheel on. Healthcare shortage? This is totally absurd. An emergency room with no wheelchairs. There should be a couple at the door at all times to transport patients in the door. I said if your arm was hanging off by a thread, would you have to carry in your own appendage? On top of this, no one there to help us—three security guards never got out of their room and the triage people never came over to see the need for help on my face. -HOPPING MAD
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2014.
I once got some pure concentrated ammonium chloride in my face and my eyes felt like they were melting and i pretty well had the same expierience only I didn’t need a wheelchair, in fact i got dropped off at the IWK by a guy who didn’t know halifax well and i had to walk half blind to the QE2 so i know how fustrating it can be cause they ignored me when i got in there, i waited two hours to get my eyes flushed out for four. After i got into where they were treating people it was pretty well the same thing, being a government worker as i laid there with tubes in my eyes and came to the realization…. They are government workers too!!!!! We all know what people say about government workers! damn them all!…except me!
Unless it’s something potentially fatal you are on your own in Nova Scotia emergency departments.
You need a new face!
Or, you could say, “Can I get some assistance here please?” Asking works-“magic words” make it work better….
a sprained ankle isn’t an emergency by any stretch of the imagination. why not just ice and elevate.
this is a complete waste of emergency room personnel.
chemical blindness is serious. if so many sprained ankles, sniffles and splinters weren’t clogging up the emergency perhaps you would have been attended to sooner.
if you had to PAY to get treated would you think twice about using the emergency system?
just because we get access to it ‘for free’ doesn’t mean we are entitled to ‘get our money’s worth’ by hopping in for a visit.
ACTUALLY, Molly, I when I tore the ACL and MCL on my knee in an accident, I waited until the evening and went to a walk-in clinic after work and the doctor on staff there told me I should have gone to the ER for x-rays asap and if it ever happens again to go to the ER and get an x-ray.
It’s also hard to tell sometimes if you have a break or a sprain. I had a third degree sprain back when I was a teenager and I had to be sent to Halifax from the valley to get an x ray because they couldn’t tell at the local hospital from the x ray if I had a fracture or not.
That being said, a simple trip to a walk in clinic for an x ray requisition would also work, although if it’s a break and not a sprain, it’s probably easier to go through the ER because you can get your cast put on if necessary.
‘…the triage people never came over to see the need for help on my face…’ – they’re health care workers, not fucking mind readers, Jim….er, OP.
If the guards were to help you and you fell or something happened, you’d be bitching about that and then sue. They are guards, not health workers. Chances are they have been ordered NOT to deal with patients until medical personnel tell them to.
Was the ER packed? Maybe all the wheelchairs were taken. Who got your niece the computer chair? It is triage and a sprained ankle as painful as that is, isn’t high on the emergency charts. It should be looked at but it will take awhile.
When you think about it, the walk-in clinic for x-ray request then off to the x-ray department for x-ray gets you seen and home again in a mere fraction of the time that emerge takes.
I did ask, that didn’t help either.
It is a sprain, but at the time, we didn’t know if she had broken it.
you really think I just stood there? Obviously this day,anyone could walk in & look bewildered.The INFO desk at no one sitting at it either. First thing I did was ask for help as one went looking,But, people that work there were just hanging around.Like I said, 4 were looking and we were unsure of the injury at the time.The girl is on crutches, it was a BAD sprain.
Son of Crispy, I only needed one to transport her in from the car. One security guy was actually sitting in a wheelchair in the office & wouldn’t give it up, there was one empty one that they refused to use & when the guy wheeled a comp chair over when we got in the door ,he was the same guy who said if she is in a comp chair, he would be liable,but then he gave her one anyway.
Molly, as I said,at the time, we didn’t know what she did to it.And knowing we don’t have to pay, why would that enter our heads, we are not the US. She was at a friends a few blocks from the hospital.We did the right thing.I do agree, many unnecessary aches and ailments, clogging up the ER,trust me walk in clinics can be much longer wait most times.
I don’t have money to sue, that’s why there’s The Coast to have a bitch fest , word gets out.We‘ll see when this happened to you ,how you feel.
What does money have to do with suing? In most cases they are taken on contingency.
sue???? you would bloody SUE over something like this?????
All OB wants is attention. She got it. Let’s move on whilst she bitches about non-caring LTWWB Commenters…
I know I sound like a broken record sometimes but it sure would help with the attitude if more people would spend time (real, living & working time not holiday time) overseas or at least in the states. hell, even a different province.
when I got back into Canada I wept. I still hate that fuckhead in the pm’s office, but this country is the BEST.
Holy multiple posts. FFS.
Jesus h christ SUE over not getting a wheel chair at the ER?
And no, wait times at walk in clinics is NOT EVER longer than at the ER. My dad came in with sepsis and still waited 13 hours until something was actually done (while he was in one of the rooms — he came in by ambulance). My mom came in by ambulance after having a seizure and passing out and smashing her face and teeth (through her face) and we were there for 11 hours.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t’ve taken your niece to the ER, but have some realistic expectations. YES you have every right to bitch about the lack of helpfulness of the staff upon your arrival, but it isn’t really the job of the security guards to carry patients in and out of cars and make sure they have a way to get around — they’re there because sometimes people come in drunk or violent. When I was there with my mom, the cops brought in some drunk that was injured and was violent as fuck.
I dunno, I’d have more sympathy for your plight if you didn’t throw around phrases like “I’d sue if I had the money!”
i’ve met many people who love canada, and having roamed around the world, i can see why. harper is a turd in the punchbowl
You’re going to sue, hire Lyle Howe, oops too late.