“Hi, I’ll have a double-double and a double-bypass, please.”
British Columbia’s health care system put the exclamation point on the word broken today, with the scandalous news that hospital staff in New Westminster had to use a Tim Hortons as a triage station. The temporary beds had to be set up in the closed coffee shop after the hospital was overrun with 100 patients between 11:45 p.m. and 12:45 a.m.
B.C. Health Minister Colin Hansen, meanwhile, was just peachy about it. In the typical manner that the BC Liberal party squeezes manure into diamonds, Hansen said that it was evidence the system works:
“It does happen from time to time that emergency rooms are under tremendous stress because of the number of patients presenting themselves on that day,” Hansen said.
“They had all the ambulances lined up outside waiting to unload passengers,” he said. “Today we have protocols in place where the patients are brought inside, they’re cared for, they get the attention of medical staff.”
Apparently the Timmys is actually a legitimate “designated overflow area” to be used in extreme high-volume situations. I don’t know whether that’s supposed to impress me or people just arriving here from Burkina Faso.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really like the idea of a donut shop being the waiting area for those awaiting emergency health treatment. Something about seriously ill people being in a place where people ordinarily eat… that kind of sounds like a health violation. I could be wrong.
And what are 100 people doing in an emergency room at midnight on a Monday night? Are we currently being invaded by Chilliwack? Is there a war I don’t know about? Or is it more likely that people are using emergency care as a substitute for the nation’s shameful doctor shortage? Questions, questions.
Of course I guess the Timmys is slightly better than their last temporary overcrowding area: the parking lot.
I’ve got an idea. Let’s charge people a nominal fee for visiting the emergency room. $20 should do it. Let’s see how many of these people are actually in a life-threatening situation and how many are taking advantage of the unlimited health care bill.
Adrian – a fair part of the problem is the lack of family doctors. When you don’t have one, emerg is where you go. I know people who have been unable to sign on to a family doctor for many years. They go to the local walk-ins when needed. I am really worried about the day our family doctor decides to retire; son-in-law got cut loose by his just recently, and he’s not been able to find a replacement.
I absolutely agree. It’s the backdoor to the doctor shortage. Although personally I’d recommend the walk-in clinics. I don’t have a family doctor either, but the clinics are good. Not that I ever really use them but in a pinch you certainly can.
Did the patients receive quality care for their “emergency”? I say that if they – the patient – did not like being treated in a Tims then they had the choice to go elsewhere.
Either way, welcome to Universal Canadian Health Care and all of “its” uglyness. No wait times at Tims – they are lucky.
As I watched last nights tv news about this story, the next one to come up was lack of money for education, and then 3 hours of Charlie Sheen. What more can I say!!
My grandma has this great story about the baby boom, post-WWII. There were so many women having babies then, she said, you’d go to the hospital, they’d put you on a gurney while you were in labour,and line you up in the hall (imaging the noise!).
Then, seconds before the baby came out, they’d wheel you in to the operating room, where you’d deliver, then immediatly be wheeled back out again, baby in hand, so another woman could be wheeled in.
Needless to say, she doesn’t have much patience for complaints of the Timmy Ho sort.