Posted on 03/15/2005 2:28:21 PM PST by CHARLITE
Running out of places to care for patients, London's busiest hospital emergency room shut its doors to all but the most severe injuries from outside the city for the first time in its history last week. Two trauma patients had to be diverted during the shutdown, with one patient sent to a hospital in Toronto and the other to Hamilton.
The situation hit amid recent reports some London patients have had to wait as long as three days for a hospital bed to become available.
"We were in a crisis situation," said Dr. Gary Joubert, chief of emergency medicine for city hospitals.
The shutdown occurred at the South Street emergency room of the London Health Sciences Centre last Monday.
A so-called level one trauma centre, the South Street ER is designated to handle Southwestern Ontario's worst cases.
Joubert said the department had already admitted 17 to 18 patients with no beds immediately available in the hospital.
Expecting more patients to arrive by ambulance and on their own at the ER that day, officials decided South Street had reached its capacity.
The province was notified the ER was closed to new trauma cases from outside London. It was still open to Londoners and those from outside the city with life-threatening injuries, Joubert said.
"Clearly if there was somebody, say, from Exeter who had a head injury that required immediate surgical intervention, we were not going to turn away that patient," he said.
But if the injury didn't require immediate intervention to save the patient's life, the department would not have accepted them.
By Tuesday morning the crisis had eased and South Street could resume taking all trauma cases, he said.
Traumatic cases cover a wide spectrum of injuries.
Joubert blamed the clogged ER on a shortage of 100 beds at London's hospitals.
Some patients at the South Street ER have recently had to wait as long as three days for a bed.
That was down to one day by Thursday, but has been as high as an 80-hour wait.
Joubert said he'd like to be optimistic the arrival of better weather will ease the strain on the city's ERs, but isn't sure that will happen.
"As long as we don't have those beds, there will invariably be times when . . . those patients will need to sit in the emergency department until we can find a place to accommodate them," he said.
Ontario Labour Minister Chris Bentley said it's unacceptable patients are waiting so long in London ERs.
"That is not what we would want to continue," said the London West Liberal MPP.
Bentley said part of the problem goes back to hospital restructuring when there was a plan to add more beds. But the former Conservative government stopped paying for that restructuring in 2000.
"We just started flowing some money so they can continue the next level of restructuring," Bentley said.
But part of the crisis could be self-inflicted by London's hospitals, Bentley suggested.
The province offered hospitals cash if they could take on more surgeries to cut waiting lists by March 31. Both LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care said they had the capacity to do more, Bentley said.
"Maybe they were a little over-enthusiastic at the hospitals for what they could accommodate," he said.
The recent closure of the ER at St. Joseph's Health Care may also have contributed to the problems, Bentley said.
Officials maintain St. Joe's conversion to an urgent-care centre is not a factor.
Here is a quote I received from a Canadian health care worker who must remain anonymous, for fear of being fired from her job.
"............ the general train of thought seems to be "let the yanks pay for it, why should we, after all, we are the ones who support peace, and they are warmongers. God's truth. I work in the health care industry, and I can assure you that it's all smoke and mirrors. I left work last Friday for the weekend, and when I returned on Monday, there were patients still lying on stretchers in the hallway in emerg. waiting for a bed, the waiting rooms are constantly full of people who clamour to be seen by a Doctor, and the walk-in clinics can't keep up with the demands to see patients. And what do you think their mantra is? "Well, at least we are not like the Americans"!!! ( What, Successful?) All this, and I pay combined taxes of %61 for the privilage of living in this socialist paradise. Enough! I will retire in four years, and the next day I will move back to Europe, as I do not wish to end my days on this frozen ice cube, supporting a system that is corrupt from the top to the bottom."
I think the article means London, Ontario...
And the dims think this would be better than what we have now??????????????
More proof they are idiots
This just Canada, nothing to do with England.
If health care is "free" under a socialist system, why isn't food free? Why can't I pay a little more in taxes and just walk into the supermarket and grab all the food I want? Surely eating is just as important as health care, and you have just as much (if not more) a right to "quality food" as you do "quality health care"?
Please,please erase this post before a liberal or NDP party member reads it and makes it a new national priority,they have just started with national institutional daycare.They don't need anymore "loonie" ideas.
........and you're right. It's from and about London, Ontario. However, from what I have read, the system in England is so similar that all those who can afford private care go to private hospitals which are very expensive. So, they are paying a tremendous % of their income to the government, then paying huge medical costs to private, "for profit" hospitals when they are sick or injured.
......NOT to worry,......Send them to the Vet.
/U.N. Animals
/British State Religion of Darwinist Evolution Re-incarnation Myth
/Bow Wow.....Hee HaW, Hee Haw,.....British Colonies about to accept el-Sharia 'health-care',.....Mad Hatter Style?
I'm not sure but this could be what was once Victoria Hospital . If it is , it's the crappy under funded socialistic old hospital that once saved my 5 year olds life when he was stricken with epiglotitis . On a Saturday night , of all nights of the week , I was in that ER room . And I saw a miracle happen .
Critics can say what they want . I say it's not perfect, no health system is , but 25 years ago it saved my kid's life and paying for his 10 day recovery stay was not an issue . He got the best care. Last year the same system birthed his daughter . And she got the best care.
And nuts to anyone who says otherwise .
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Private facilities don't exists in Canada for non elective procedures. The psychology of Canadians is that health care must be universally available to everyone with no exceptions made based on income. In Canada, it is thought of as unfair if you can cut in line by paying extra for private care. Everybody must be subjected to the same abyssmal system. No exceptions for the Rich!! What makes them better than everyone else. I kid you not, this is the thinking of the vast majority of Canadians - until they have to go to the hospital.
And my father died waiting for care in Windsor, and my grandmother in Thunder Bay suffered 3 years in a hospital bed after a stroke while waiting for a nursing home and rehabilitative therapy that never came. My mom who has MS had to drive to a specialist in London 100 miles away becasue that was the nearest one to the major industrial city where we lived. If people can afford it, they go to Detroit to get care rather than waiting a year for a referral to a doctor because they were just diagnosed with cancer. Don't get me started on the desperate, third world conditions of health care in Canada. Southeast asia handled the SARS outbreak better than Canada did! The incompetence of socialized care is highlighted by every stategic decision regarding the systems across the Canadian provinces. The system is not free, either, because you pay out the nose in the form of oppressive taxes at all level for this disgusting system they call health care. I pity the friends and family I left when I emmigrated to the States. At least here, I can see a doctor and get treatment. Heck, the metropolitan area around Detroit has more health care resources than the entire Province of Ontario!
And my father has survived both bowel and prostrate cancer. Both treated in London . The former in the Old Victoria and the latter at the cancer clinic at the New Vic . He has new eyes thanks to cataract treatment. Without it today he'd be blind . Both eyes done in less than 6 months . My neighbour waited almost 3 months for injections into his knee only to be told the knee was too damaged . He had it replaced three weeks later . And the SARS epidemic. My cousin's wife had a liver transplant right in the middle of it . At Grace hospital . The Grace hospital in Toronto. She is still with us and takes one day at a time. . My uncle just had a double hernia fixed. At the Shouldice Clinic . A private clinic in Toronto . Doing well . If I need a MRI I'll get it, there is a waiting list if you want one which is not the same as needing one. There are also private clinics . Several .I could go on too.
I've continually said it's not perfect , it never can be. And the government is on the cheap and the unions suck and there aren't enough doctors . And no it's not free but in the middle of a medical problem, it's damn nice to know you don't have to worry about paying for it by mortgaging your future .
And worth every penny of it.
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