More stuff re: "hospitals in crisis":
Times-Colonist
March 20, 2024
Saanich man, 87, spent nine days in a hallway at Victoria General Hospital
A statement from Island Health said it cannot speak to specific patient details. In general, hospitals all across the Island and province “are incredibly busy and capacity issues are an ongoing challenge,” it said, but patients are never turned away.
“When our sites are extremely busy, at times, some patients are being cared for in temporary places, including hallways,” the statement said. “We know this is not ideal, and we apologize.”
--
Times-Colonist
July 21, 2007
Hospital left man in shower for four days
A man suffering from a serious injury says he spent four days in a damp, dirty shower stall because of overcrowding at Kelowna General Hospital.
"The nurses also didn't bother to tell me that at 6:30 in the morning I was going to be unceremoniously awakened and rolled out in the hallway so other patients could use the showers, then rolled back in with the floors still wet," he said.
...administrative director of the hospital, defended the move.
"It's not convenient, and it's not ideal, but I think the best intention there was to give him the privacy that he would require,"
B.C. NDP health critic Adrian Dix blamed "government negligence". (aastra says: a very mysterious kind of negligence, which plays out for decades at a time, and for which nobody at any level is ever held accountable, almost as if it's all being done in a visibly exaggerated manner on purpose.)
"This is really what's been going on at Kelowna General Hospital for some time,"
"There's a full ward there that's being used for administrative offices. And surely that's a better place to patients than hallways and shower stalls."
--
Times-Colonist
June 29, 1990
Senators laud GVHS for report
The amalgamation of Victoria hospitals and the Victoria Health Project have been touted by a standing Senate committee as worthy of note by other provinces.
...before the amalgamation, the two Victoria hospitals were competitive and hostile, which led to unnecessary duplication of services and a lack of co-operation.
Problems included frequent surgical cancellations and bed shortages, with patients stashed in hallways, sunrooms, treatment rooms, and linen closets. Some were held for up to 48 hours in the emergency ward before being transferred to a hospital room.
(aastra says: one day we're supposed to be outraged because they haven't done anything to address the longstanding problems, and the next day we're supposed to be applauding because they've done something to address the longstanding problems. Lather, rinse, repeat.)
--
Times-Colonist
January 7, 2005
Elderly jam hospital emergency wards
A heartbreaking (aastra says: is this a news article or the treatment for a movie screenplay?) number of elderly people -- wigs falling off, nightshirts riding up, weak voices calling for help -- lay on stretchers in the halls of Royal Jubilee Hospital's emergency department Thursday afternoon.
Thirty-one admitted patients, most of them elderly, were waiting at the Jubilee ER for beds. Another 22 admitted patients waited in Victoria General's ER and five at Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
Victoria's ailing hospital emergency departments have been hit with another wave of overcrowding expected to last through the weekend...
No single ailment or situation is causing the backup...
"Hospitals are really full of sick people right now."
--
Times-Colonist
March 20, 2006
Nurses' workloads a key problem, union says
...86 per cent of nurses in acute car, 83 per cent in long-term care and 81 per cent in community care said "workload is a problem."
More than half said baseline staffing is inadequate for the number of patients, residents or clients. Four in 10 said the regular nursing complement is below that minimum all or most of the time.
...44 per cent said they cared for patients in hallways, closets and "unfunded" beds -- those closed by health authorities despite patient demand.
--
Times-Colonist
April 27, 2006
Politicians warned of ER crisis
Officials told repeatedly of patients dying in hospital halls, memos say
Internal hospital documents... show doctors have been warning B.C. politicians for at least three years about patients dying in emergency department hallways.
Over and over, politicians and government officials were advised that patients were suffering and dying, because all the demands on the health system were being permitted to back up into emergency departments.
This memo referred to one emergency patient suffering from meningitis who "will never work again because of brain damage, as a result of a long wait in the waiting room and thus a delay in antibiotics." It does not specify the hospital where the tragedy occurred.
The doctors' memo also cites "cardiac arrest in the waiting room. Many examples here."
Other preventable deaths were also cited: "Some patients, such as those with stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, sepsis, myocardial infarction are thought to be dying directly because of emergency department crowding."
...the Fraser Health Authority was told nearly 2.5 years ago that at Royal Columbian Hospital someone in the waiting room for a long time "arrests" nearly every week.
...head of the Royal Columbian ER, wrote on Dec. 23, 2003, "We have had so many severe infections that, after waiting many hours in the waiting room, finally developed septic shock, intubation, or death."
This month, frustrated doctors at emergency departments at Vancouver General and Royal Columbian issued open letters to the public to alert them to the crisis situation at their hospitals.
...Health Minister Abbott responded by calling doctors "alarmist for citing congestion" as a cause of patient deaths. The minister told the media: "The suggestion that there is any neglect in the system is, I think, an unfortunate one."
(aastra says: the premise that clueless elected politicians would have any say whatsoever in medical treatment is about as believable as the premise that clueless elected politicians would have any say whatsoever in military operations or financial policies. And yet adults, grown men and women, want to believe it. Folks, it simply is not true nor could it ever be true. We're talking about the kinds of individuals that no sane person would ever trust to be able to wipe their own behinds in an effective and responsible manner. And yet we're supposed to believe they have life-or-death influence over these critical environments and the critical decisions being made. Come on: the crisis mindset IS the business. Politics is a layer of performance theatre in service of the drama.)
--
Times-Colonist
December 8, 2006
ER backups force surgery cancellations
Three hospitals in southern Vancouver Island are cancelling elective surgeries this week due to backed-up emergency rooms.
To push patients through the ER, stretchers have been set up in hospital hallways and extra beds added to rooms.
"It's been busy since the snow fell,"... people are still fracturing hips and wrists because of falling on ice.
Hospital ERs are traditionally busier in the winter, and especially so nearing Christmas...
--
Times-Colonist
February 28, 1998
Prairie hospitals stop surgery
A critical shortage of emergency and intensive care beds continues to plague hospitals across the Prairies as staff tried to cope with chronic bed shortages.
...staff at Edmonton's five hospitals braced for a new surge of weekend patients.
"This morning we had about 30 patients in our emergency wards waiting for beds...."
"The situation has eased somewhat but that's been at the expense of cancelling surgeries -- over 40 yesterday and over 40 today."
While bad winter weather normally means more accidents, recent mild weather has encouraged more people to get out of doors.
"Everybody's out and then they're likely to get into trouble. So it's a mixed bag quite honestly."
In Winnipeg, more than 100 people were waiting for beds last week as patients lined hallways and the province decided to cancel elective surgery to ease the crunch.
(aastra says: hospitals tend to get overcrowded because of severe winter weather but they tend to get even more overcrowded because of mild winter weather. It's almost as if "the overcrowding crisis" is scripted to persist year after year, decade after decade, regardless of any actual external realities.)
Edited by aastra, 20 March 2024 - 12:11 PM.
STAY CONNECTED TO VIBRANTVICTORIA
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON CITIFIED VICTORIA
