To: Honourable Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario. and Honourable Victor Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade of Ontario.
I read with interest the letter from CUPE where they speak about the health care shortage of beds and staff.
I was a recent victim of the “No Beds“ as I waited 10 days for “Life changing surgery“. I went through our northern health care system travelling from the North Bay hospital ER to the Sudbury Health Sciences North hospital. I was a victim of “no beds ,“
I was diagnosed within an hour of arriving at the NBRHC ER and was told that I would require life-changing surgery. The surgeon who was going to operate on me was assigned to my case almost immediately after I received my diagnosis. He immediately started to treat me with medication.
Well Vic and Doug I can tell you that I am “NOT HAPPY“ with either of you.
I didn’t care for either of you but I still voted for your party. Now Doug I do have to admit that I respected the way you handled the pandemic. For me, you were making the right decisions for the right reasons. I know that you have both done some really good things recently for our Health Care Professionals, but it’s simply not enough, you have to do more.
You need to make it a top priority.
So now the slow walk started for me heading over to Sudbury for the surgery.
First, two days in the North Bay ER while I waited to get a bed on the floor. I received great care from the doctors and staff in the ER. Dr. Wickett was the attending ER doctor and then Dr. Wallace took over and did everything in her power to get me a bed in Sudbury.
After two days in the ER in North Bay I was moved to unit C3 where I spent the next four days waiting for a bed in Sudbury. Unit C3 had a number of dedicated and passionate healthcare professionals who went out of their way to care for my family and me. Many left an impression on me, like two nurses Nicole and Tyler along with Catherine my code white nurse.
I finally did get a bed over in Sudbury (after 6 Days) and was transferred via Patient Transfer to HSN. When I arrived there, there was some confusion but I must say that a nurse by the name of Ashley got me all settled in, which was a great relief to me.
In Sudbury at HSN I waited three more days before I could get the life-changing surgery. In all, I waited 10 days for the surgery and that is simply put, NOT acceptable.
In Sudbury HSN I met many more dedicated and passionate doctors and nurses and staff who all had the same goal and that was to provide excellent care for all of their patients. After receiving the surgery during a 3-hour operation by Dr. McGregor I was transferred to the ICU where I spent the next two days because, you guessed it “ No Beds.“
I was actually discharged from the ICU, something that doesn’t normally happen. Dr. Anderson and my nurse Stephanie spent a lot of time sorting through the protocols in order to allow me to get back home. I am so thankful to both of them.
I really hope that my experience with the healthcare system is at least some motivation for both of you to make it a priority to work on fixing our system because right now, it’s not working. Ten days waiting to get “Life Changing Surgery“ IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.“
I will commend both of you for a couple of things that you have done. First, paying for the tuition for nurses, paramedics and lab technicians and your recent announcement for 9 million dollars for 45 new beds in North Bay.
I wish I had kept a list of all the people who cared for me at both hospitals so I could have included them in this letter.
In closing, I hope your government will prioritize our province’s healthcare crisis. I met and was cared for by exceptional healthcare professionals and it would be an unimaginable loss to our healthcare system to lose even one of them.
Ken Miller
North Bay
