Joey Salmongo and her son Justus, who was born three weeks early, went to the emergency room at Stouffville Hospital in the Toronto suburb of Markham on Dec. 30. The child was suffering from high fever. It was only five hours later that a doctor did an initial examination of the child, and Mr. Salmingo said.
It took an hour to see a nurse at the medical exam
he said. I am very worried about all this. […] my son [a tout juste trois semaines]. […] I don't think anyone in the ER knew a newborn was waiting. [au triage médical].
[Premier arrivé, premier servi]Take a number like the butcher shop.
After four hours, the doctor examined the child. Three hours later—eight hours in all—we found a room upstairs for Justus.
The child was eventually hospitalized for nearly three days, explains his father, who notes that his son is now recovering and resting at home.
Mr. While Salmingo's experience had a happy ending, the state of the province's emergency rooms is stressful for patients and healthcare workers alike, experts say.
Unacceptable, the emergency doctor says
According to Health Quality Ontario, the average emergency room wait time across the province from the time a person arrives at the emergency room to the time they are first evaluated by a doctor is 2.1 hours.
According to the agency, statistics from October 2023 show that patients requiring hospitalization spent an average of 22 hours in the emergency room before getting a bed in a room. Only 23% of patients were admitted to hospital from the emergency department within the provincial target time of eight hours.
Dr. Raghu Venugopal, an emergency room physician working at three different hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area, said Mr. Says Salmingo's situation. Contrary to any notion of acceptability in medical care
In Canada.
A newborn with a fever may have sepsis — a serious infection in which the immune system overreacts to a pathogen — and should see a doctor within 15 to 30 minutes, she said.
Dr. Raghu Venugopal says that a child suffering from fever should be seen as soon as possible.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Susan Goodspeed/CBC News
Dr. Venugopal feels sorry for the emergency room staff: He says medical professionals experience a lot of stress when they put patients' health at risk. He added that the situation in the province has been deteriorating for some time.
According to him, a lack of hospital beds, a lack of proper staffing, an increase in risky behaviors among Ontario's population and a shortage of emergency physicians are putting pressure on an already strained system.
As a nation we are failing children, women, the elderly and the sick in general
Dr. Venugopal says.
Staff on the verge of burning
In a recent NANOS survey of 774 hospital employees, including licensed practical nurses, technicians and clerical staff, conducted by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), the majority of respondents said they do not believe the government will make any progress in health care. In the coming year.
Almost 70% of workers surveyed in Ontario say they don't have enough staff to provide high-quality patient care
Secretary-Treasurer Sharon Richer explains CSHO.
Workers are at risk of burnout CSHO. More than six in ten responded that they felt tired, while two in five said they dreaded going to work and considered quitting.
The union is asking the provincial government to pump funds into the health system to avert a staffing crunch. He wants the province to invest $1.25 billion a year over the next four years, indexing the investment to inflation.
A spokeswoman for Ontario's health minister said the province's nurses are among the highest paid in Canada, and an additional 15,000 nurses are expected to be added by 2023.
Dr. Venugopal says the province needs to significantly increase hospital capacity and better promote work, and it could try to fund virtual care and for-profit beds in the community.
We need to make the work environment and health care more attractive and enjoyable for people who struggle every day.
For his part, Mr. Salmingo worries that emergency room wait times are becoming normalized in the minds of Ontarians. This is normal. I recounted my experience to a friend, who replied: “Oh, eight o’clock [au total]? It's not bad, you [chanceux]!”
With information from the CBC
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