To the editor:
What has happened to our healthcare system?
We hear different excuses for long waits at hospitals and clinics, lack of nurses, shortage of doctors, etc, etc. Something has to be done, and soon, to repair what was once a healthcare system we could be all proud of.
I went to the emergency department at the North Bay hospital this past Saturday as a follow-up for pneumonia and COPD diagnosed this past Monday at this centre. I arrived at noon and was given a checkup and X-ray almost immediately. I now only had to wait for a doctor to view the X-ray and decide whether I required further medication and care.
By eleven o’clock that evening, I dared to ask if I was actually going to be seen. I was told, "good news," my name was on the next run, whatever that meant. Another half hour and I was called in, given a quick check-up and a quick sip of water, and taken to a room. I was relieved that I was finally going to be seen, twelve hours later, one sip of water and my patience was growing thin.
However, no one came in to see me. A nurse walked by and I asked how long this part was going to take and she advised me that she had just heard that there would be an eleven-hour wait.
That was finally it for me, I said take me to wherever I need to be to get out of here. Twelve hours already and another eleven expected. I can’t do it. She brought me past a room of perhaps four men, either nurses or doctors, I’m not sure which, relaxing and doing really nothing but chatting and I was allowed to sign myself out.
All I needed was a doctor to look at my X-ray and make a decision. Ten maybe 15 minutes. Did I mention that I am seventy-one years old? This was in my view unacceptable.
Something has to be done sooner than later.
Nancy Aultman
North Bay
