Hospitals in crisis

[impact]

"According to Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, system overcapacity has been years in the making, especially in non-urban regions."

"Andrea Unger, a 20-year veteran emergency physician in southwestern Ontario, says the causes of crowding in her department are no different than in other regions across the province: Shortage of nursing staff and large numbers of admitted patients waiting for long-term care beds or home-care services mean she cannot move patients from the emergency department to hospital floors."

“Our ER has been reduced from 30 acute care stretchers to see 100 patients per day down to 10 because the other stretchers are filled with 20 people waiting to be admitted,” she says. “We have seen a 100-per-cent increase in length of time people are waiting in the waiting room (since before the pandemic), and patients frequently exceed the number of chairs in the waiting room.”
"Unger loses sleep thinking about the one in 20 patients who now leave her emergency department without seeing a doctor – a number that has skyrocketed in the past year. “These are the people who leave in frustration and come back with heart attacks or come back with a ruptured appendix.”

Describing a patient who would face delays in care for a heart attack or a brain bleed, for example, Duwyn says, “These situations are a worst nightmare. At times, there are not enough staff to physically transfer someone and keep the emergency department open. It is one thing when it is beyond your control (like dangerous weather conditions in a remote location), but it is another when it is because of staffing levels.”
According to Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, system overcapacity has been years in the making, especially in non-urban regions.
“We are looking at a 20-year period where the needs of rural and northern communities, with respect to hospital services, have been more or less overlooked,” says Dale. “Now the pandemic has revealed to all, not just rural and northern communities, the system is extremely fragile everywhere.”
"With a hospital system running at or over capacity at all times, the highest proportion of acute care beds ever occupied by alternate level of care patients, higher vacancy rates in the health-care workforce, difficulty recruiting and retaining staff and workforce burnout, Dale predicts the situation in acute care hospitals over the coming months is precarious at best."
"But it is not just in hospitals where the dangers of crowding are evident. Russell King, chief of the Brant/Brantford Paramedic Services, says because of emergency department crowding, his paramedic crews are unable to offload patients in a timely manner, causing what are called “offload delays.” These delays can result in worst-case scenarios called Code Zero, or when there are no ambulances available to respond to a 911 emergency in the community."

https://www.healthing.ca/policy/hosp...ing-the-alarm/

[canadaman30]

I have family working hospitals here in Durham region, they tell the same story. Hospitals are not at all overwhelmed with covid patients, they are overwhelmed with admitted patients in various care units combined with low staffing numbers.

[Gun Nut]

I have family working hospitals here in Durham region, they tell the same story. Hospitals are not at all overwhelmed with covid patients, they are overwhelmed with admitted patients in various care units combined with low staffing numbers.

<br>
<br>
You don't suppose the level of immigration in to the country might have something to do with the problem? As well as over burdening other areas of public services. Possibly contributing to the levels of this country's CO2 emission as productions increases to supply their needs. Probably there is&nbsp; a number of other areas&nbsp;&nbsp;that come up short as they establish<br>annual immigration levels. Shouldn't immigration be based upon&nbsp;our capacity to handle the influx, as opposed to some dreamt up quota?.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>
<br>
You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.<br>
- Gun Nut

[canadaman30]

You don't suppose the level of immigration in to the country might have something to do with the problem?

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

With no new hospitals being built and Increasing population through immigration, it only makes sense to become overwhelmed with more patients.

[MikePal]

[FONT=&][I]

"According to Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, system overcapacity has been years in the making, especially in non-urban regions."

I bit of a wrench in the hypothesis of the rural Hospitals suffering:

My with spent 25 yrs as a critical care Nurse in Ottawa Civic Hospital, split between ICU and ER. She has seen it all and then some, especially the ER that ran at 110% capacity on any 'normal day'. All sorts of reasons, but staffing was always high on the list.

Her last years working were spent in a rural hospital, again in the ER but it was a world of difference. It actually was a pleasure to work there. She was reacquainted with some very experienced nurses she had worked in the city who also quit, to get away from the stress there. There are 3 local hospitals in Eastern that all run very well, no bed shortages, ER wait times are very low and the service couldn't be better. Yes there are limitations to services available, but it's only quick trip from Ottawa by ambulance.

The biggest problem, the secret got out and a lot of the city folk head out to the rural hospitals for ER visits now and they are getting busier.

It would take pages to identify the all problems within big city hospitals..but in Crisis..definitely. .and a lot has to do with staffing. Part-time workers are the norm, only get 2 shift guarantees a week and the rest of the work they get is based on seniority. Leave is never granted, so they call in sick, and filling shifts last minute is always a problem so wards have shortages almost every shift. So it's always stressful from the time you punch the clock..so so speak.

One good thing about the pandemic...I think things will change as more 'quilt' money will flow from both levels of government.

One good initiative is already being used...they moved all the elderly waiting for placement out of hospital beds and they rented a whole floor of a hotel to house them... should have been done years ago.

[Bushwhacker]

Great thread.

A pandemic so horrible, we are firing health care workers in an already short-staffed situation. And to Gun Nut's point, the immigration #'s keep rising (mostly to areas that are already densely populated) and our housing inventory, roads/transit/infrastructure are way behind. Add inflation and politicization of every aspect of our lives and you get big problems.

A friend of mine had to bring his 1.5 year old to emergency for stitches to his head the other day. They waited over 4 hours.
3rd generation Canadians who have been paying taxes in this country for years. It's not right any way you look at it.

[kokes]

20+ months into this thing and not a single new hosptial being built? there should have been a half dozen built in ontario alone - instead alot of money spent by all levels of govt on vax passports, cerb, covid vaccine TV commercials, money to legacy media such as CBC... its clearly all about keeping us safe! Maybe Pfizer can donate enough $ for a hospital in each province after how much $ they fleeced us for...

Im disguted with our health care system to be honest, we like to brag about how its free, but sometimes you get what you pay for.. its in everyones best interest to be proactive about our health or were all in big trouble down the road..

[Bushwhacker]

20+ months into this thing and not a single new hosptial being built? there should have been a half dozen built in ontario alone - instead alot of money spent by all levels of govt on vax passports, cerb, covid vaccine TV commercials, money to legacy media such as CBC... its clearly all about keeping us safe! Maybe Pfizer can donate enough $ for a hospital in each province after how much $ they fleeced us for...

Im disguted with our health care system to be honest, we like to brag about how its free, but sometimes you get what you pay for.. its in everyones best interest to be proactive about our health or were all in big trouble down the road..

Don't forget the money spent on covering hotel floors with plastic! Because science.

https://twitter.com/Kaffir_Kanuck/st...23512220057603

[fishfood]

I've stressed about the health care since the beginning of the pandemic. As hospitals already overwhelmed we added a problem almost 2 years ago and all we seemed to do is delay other things than fix a problem .

Maybe covid people need their own center's. If they are worried about the the health of other people then putting them together seems awfully Silly.

Why would the government do something productive they never do just beat around the bush and compliant about how it's a problem.



Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

[fishfood]

Don't forget the money spent on covering hotel floors with plastic! Because science.

https://twitter.com/Kaffir_Kanuck/st...23512220057603

A few fully vaccinated people have been getting stuck in quarantine . You need an arrive Canada app. Not filled in straight to quarantine I've read a few articles about this

A fully vaccinated day tripper had to go for 2 week time out. We are creating a mess.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk