Last night I had the misfortune of comforting my daughter through the trials of a viral infection. No big deal until early this morning blood started showing up. We received good attention and care at St. Joseph's Health Centre ER and Christina is beginning to recover.
Here's the part that just baffles me. When we arrived at the ER there were NO nurses in at the reception triage to assess incoming patients - None. After waiting patiently for two or three minutes I requested attention from a registration staff person. They paged a nurse. No response. We had obviously arrived during a shift change. It was a full ten minutes before staff arrived to triage Christina and another individual who had arrived before we did. Have I missed an annoucement? When did "back in 10 minutes" become acceptable intake practice at an Ontario hospital Emergency Department?
Good thing we don't live in a 3rd world country though.
That's frightening!
That's scary!
Hey, last summer a friend of mine who is an auto mechanic lost three fingers on his right hand in an accident at work.
He showed up at the Cobourg Hospital and sat for three hours, (THREE HOURS!!!!) without pain killers, waiting for a doctor to see him.
By that time, even though he had brought his fingers with him in a bag of ice, it was too late to do anything to save them.
Consider Christina fortunate indeed!
Doesn't say much for the medical system.
Least we have a medical system.
I am thankful for the medical system that we have but we can do better - much better.