Charles,
I must tell you about my experience at the hospital on Friday
night.
For the past few days I have had discomfort in my groin area, I
guess you would call it a dull pain, also neck pain and my legs have been very weak where I can't stand up. I have the feeling like I'm going to fall all the time.
In the past I have had problems with my blood, I develop
blood clots very easily. I was concerned about the way I was feeling so I called the hospital, they told me that someone would call me back in twenty to thirty minutes.
They called back within ten minutes, they were very kind to me and took all my information, because of my history the nurse told me
not to go to the walk in clinic just go right to the hospital. I took her
advice and went to the hospital, I was very worried that I might have blood clots.
I arrived at the hospital at 7:00 pm. gave them all the information on
myself and was told to wait in the waiting room and I would be called.
There were only four people waiting to to be seen by a doctor, I
thought I wouldn't be there very long. I sat there waiting and waiting, people were coming in and going out. I never got called in till 1:30 am. they put me in a room and told me to get undressed and put the gown on.
The nurse came in and took my blood pressure and my temperature. I waited again.
I never saw the doctor till 3:00 am. He said he was going to take some blood and check it out. He made me walk on my tippy toes, on my heels and walk toe to toe across the room. I guess to check my balance.
At 3:30 am. a nurse came in to take four viles of blood from me.
Again I waited, the doctor finally came back at 8:00 am. he told me I had no blood clots and he thought it was my thyroid gland but some of the testing wouldn't be back for a few more days, he told me to get in touch with my own doctor to find out the rest of the results. He then told me I could go home.
The thing is I sat there all that time worried about having blood clots, and if I had one I think I could have had a stroke or died just sitting there waiting for so long.
They should have more doctors on duty at the hospital and more walk in clinics here.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital has its problems.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
There are a few things missing from that post that have some relevance to the situation.
Do you have a family doctor?
If yes, why did you wait several days before then deciding on Friday night after physician office hours are over that your aching all of a sudden was life-threatening?
If no, again, why did you wait several days instead of going to one of the clinics on the first night of your aching?
In either case, if you truly felt that you were in an emergency situation - which blood clots certainly are - then why did you not call an ambulance? As of last year, they are free, and you would have been seen immediately upon arrival to the hospital.
There's triage and based on your account of your symptoms, it sounds like just about anyone else who visited the emergency room that evening would have appeared to the triage nurse to have had more serious symptoms than you.
You shouldn't be smoking or drinking if you have all those ailments.
That's pretty much epidemic in the health care system. It's always a stroke of luck to get right in. If you can talk, they assume there is no hurry. When we lived in Ontario it was the same, my wife kept having gallstone attacks, and every time she went in, they let her sit in the bed for almost an hour. It's no fun when you're in that kind of pain, and it's no fun standing next to her not able to do anything. I kept getting the urge to grab a doctor and drag them in to see her.
By the time they saw her the pain was gone, so they said don't eat greasy food and see you later. I swear that ER's are just trying to discourage people coming in. At the clinic they were better and she got into a specialist who removed her gall bladder in two weeks (although that took a phone call to remind him how much pain she was in).
I think it was blogged before about something happening at the ER in Tracadie, but I can't remember, something about a guy having a heart attack who wasn't seen to. I can't quite remember, but clearly there needs to be more transparancy at hospitals.
If blood clots were that serious then the attending would have known that. You think it makes a difference whether in an ambulance or not?
I agree that the wait period here in fredericton is terrible. I have little kids and I agree it's terrible that they're made to wait for that length of time. I'm on your side mom. Love you!
Colleen, I'm curious, do you think that if your kid has a runny nose that your kid should be seen as soon as you walk in the door, ahead of adults who have been sitting there for hours in genuine pain, just because of age?
The message was about the waiting time at the hospital and one walk in clinic isn't enough. They should also have more than one doctor on.
Colleen, there are some people out there that come on this site just to tear people apart, they get off on that kinda thing. "Really" how sick is that? Your a mother and of course you would want good care for your children.
Well now the Chamlmers is catching up to the Saint JOhn Regional....they have few doctors and the police think it is okay on saturday night to just drop off the drunks and leave ...the nurses then have to look after them instead of the sick people......
Yes, that's the 'status quo' guy talking: "everything is fine, its just YOU who are the problem". My mother was a nurse for forty years and the horror stories she tells are something else. She says the last ten were the worst where nurses were trained to become 'administrators' and patients were to become 'clients'. She thanks god every day she doesn't have to do that anymore.
That doesn't mean there aren't good people in the system, and that certainly doesn't mean you privatize it. You just make it open and transparent. Keep in mind that the government has a website out there somewhere that supposedly tracks 'wait times'. Most of them are wait times for surgery or specialists, but maybe somebody should start a blog on the different health regions and how many staff each has on duty, wait times at emergency rooms, etc.
It's not like New Brunswick is Detroit or Chicago. This isn't ER with non-stop gunshot victims coming in. For those who don't think there is a problem there was even an academic study on how many deaths in Canada were due to negligence, improper diagnosis, and the wrong treatment. I don't even know how pharmacists read that doctor handwriting-for supposedly educated people it makes you worried that they never even learned to write legibly. I always thought that Herman cartoon was funny where the pharmacist says "I can't read your doctors handwriting-what are your symptoms"
tis all costs money my friends. If current trends continue, health care will consume 50 percent of our budget in a few years, and access to care will still decline. Time to look at two-tier perhaps? Europe does it, very successfully I might add.
Actually I don't take my children to the hospital for things like runny noses thank you very much! Those ailments are for Dr. Mom to deal with, and I do so quite nicely I might add. Maybe that comment came from the parent on drugs who waits for child protection to come and rescue their child from any ailments basic or otherwise. And don't worry about me Beth... I'm completely aware of the over opinionated, under educated loud mouths that respond on this site. Believe me I've dealt with bigger and badder then them. I can handle it! But thank you so much for your kindness. You're a sweetheart! As for the other one there who hides behind an annonymous identity... sit on it and rotate! At least I give a damn about my children!!! And if I think that their runny nose is a serious one at least we all know now that I don't neglet my children! THANK GOD FOR THAT!
P.S. By the way, just to answer your initial question, it still doesn't change the fact that the wait period is far too long whether it's for a childs runny nose or an adults excrutiating pain. It really shouldn't take 8 hours for anyone to be seen.
Colleen,
You go girl. You are the BEST MOM EVER.
Post a Comment