Emergency healthcare in Canada

Charlene blogged last week about what happened when she took our daughter to emergency last week:

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?

The shocking thing is what my brother Arthur added in his comment:

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.

Hard to believe that stories like this can be told in a country like Canada.