Description
My girlfriend and I recently spent upwards of 6 hours one night at the Victoria Hospital because she was experiencing abdominal pains. We spent about 3.5 hours of our time there sitting in the waiting room. While we were waiting to be called a convict from PACC was brought in and treated immediately and was finished and gone before we had been called in. Also while we were still waiting a vagrant came stumbling in reaking of listerine and he was also treated before we were called in. Why are the taxpayers being made to wait and the criminals and substance abusers given priority? In the end we finally got back home around 5am and I had to work at 7:30am that morning now on next to no sleep. Not impressed.
81 Comments
Pooky (Guest)
Ed_m (Guest)
disgusted (Guest)
some people (Guest)
Tax Payer (Guest)
Peg (Guest)
megan (Registered User)
Hello SeeClickFixers!
I want to thank you all for the taking the time to report issues on SeeClickFix. It seems like you all are very passionate about this issue; it's generating a lot of dialogue. While discussing the issue itself helps, it might be more constructive to work together and brainstorm some possible solutions. What can be done to resolve this issue?
Keep SeeClickFixing!
Peg (Guest)
The problem I'm seeing is where to put the walk-in clinics. Ideally, there'd be three or four open 24-hours or very late, with one of them being downtown. That last one would need security, for sure, I think. That's not practical, though, is it, having several 24-hour clinics. Not in a city our size, anyway.
While I can appreciate that no one walks the drunks around at all and getting the prisoners in and out in a hurry might be a good idea, that still doesn't cover the waiting problem. There's another problem, though. I'm not saying it's the case here, but some people don't seem to understand that being in pain all day and *then* wanting to see a doctor about it isn't the way to deal with things. I know quite a few people who do that and take up space at the hospital because they can't be arsed to go the bit of a distance during 'prime time' television hours to see a doctor at a clinic.
It's a pity that there's not enough money in the budget to have a 24-hour infirmary in the jails and/or a couple of 'advanced first aid' responders assigned to the police department.
Darliss Vogelgesang (Registered User)
She started having the abdominal pain after the minor emerg closed
realist (Guest)
Screwed (Guest)
Display Name (Registered User)
can't understand (Guest)
yomomma (Guest)
Vlasic (Registered User)
hockey11 (Guest)
disgusted (Guest)
Maybe that is what is meant by code blue?
Display Name (Registered User)
The emergency dept, is for emergencies, but is it debatable whether individuals getting into a fight or being intoxicated because of issues with addictions and substance abuse are of a higher priority than people with problems they did not get because of poor life decisions.....I think not.
Oh really? (Guest)
Oh really? (Guest)
Ughhh (Guest)
After I was taken into ambulatory care, I waited another 2 hours to get an xray, along with another hour to finally see a doctor.
Turns out I tore 5 ligaments in my foot and broke my ankle after slipping on ice and landing on it, which had already been starting to discolor and was the size of a softball.
But sitting there in pain doesn't matter if a drunk needs detox and a bed to sleep in.
Derp (Guest)
@ Dallas Wilm - The problem you have doesn't seem to be with the hospitals ER , it seems to be with the population of our city that could be classified as "less than desirable". Add that to the fact that you attempted to gain sympathy by including your start time of work (which has absolutely no relation to the need of a 24 hour clinic), and this post has all the characteristics of someone who got a little frustrated and felt the need to vent.
Perhaps instead of complaining about a measly six hour wait you could thank the staff for saving your girlfriends ability to procreate? Call me old fashioned but 6 hours doesn't seem that terrible in the big picture...
missmonkey (Guest)
tiredofthesameoldthing (Guest)
Oh really? (Guest)
PAGuy (Registered User)
Darliss Vogelgesang (Registered User)
To Derp: why do the "less than desirables" seem to get treated and released quicker than the taxpayers?
Oh well if you have a nusing or medical degree than by all means, we should send them over in your direction.
I've sat in that emergency area with my wife and my daughter on a couple of different occassions and you know what? inmate from PACC or the "Big Pen" gets served and released well ahead of everyone else, even my wife, my daughter. Why? probably cause they have a hang nail of all things.
6 hours is way too long enough for anyone to wait. Dallas probably could of driven his gf to S'toon (maybe if she wasn't in unbearable pain) and been treated. It's just a shame that this issue keeps coming up again and again and the health region can't seem to change things...maybe it's time!
Another point of view (Guest)
megan (Registered User)
Hello again SeeClickFixers!
I want to thank you again for using our site to report issues in your community. As I mentioned earlier, complaining about an issue can only get you so far. It may be more prudent to start collaborating and brainstorming possible solutions to bring up to your public officials. Unconstructive or disrespectful comments may be removed in the future.
Keep SeeClickFixing!
me (Guest)
resident (Guest)
RN (Guest)
Darliss Vogelgesang (Guest)
Emma (Guest)
Roofer (Registered User)
Zathis (Guest)
yomomma (Guest)
Darliss Vogelgesang (Registered User)
Display Name (Registered User)
Annoyed (Guest)
ms bizz (Guest)
lol (Guest)
Annoyed (Guest)
Shelly. (Guest)
DragonTammer (Guest)
This is something that I just do not understand how the Health District can blindly over look for so long! This hospital has to service, the entire city, 3 jails and a very large geographic area surrounding and north of here. Many of the smaller communities around here no longer have doctors and if they do have doctor services or hospitals they are not full time doctors or full scale hospitals.
So it is really not surprising that I have had severe right side abdominal and back pain with vomiting and diarrhea and had to sit in chairs in the hall for 6 hrs, running back and forth to the public bathroom trying not to crap myself and not to throw up all over the floor, before being seen. Then once getting seen ending up being kept for approx. 24 hrs plus while they ran tests and determined why I was so ill and my blood work was so out of whack! If we had a 24 hr clinic much of the wait that night would have been avoided, as many other people there, who stated it right to me, were there because they had a cold for two weeks now that would not go away or were there because they had a head ache, etc, could have gone to or been sent to the 24 hr clinic!
Although, I feel that a 24 hr Walk in Clinic will only truly help alleviate the strain on the Victoria Hospital if it has appropriate services, is strategically located near the hospital and was set up to work in tandem with the Victoria Hospital ER.
Appropriate Services - A 24 hr clinic would greatly reduce the strain if it could provide at least two doctors on at all times, while operating at least a 24 hr basic level lab and better yet a 24 hr x-ray as well. With these services, there would be far less strain on the Victoria Hospital ER, as well as their lab and x-ray during "business hours".
Strategic Placement - By being placed near the hospital, the clinic will have a some what centralized location, that many of the people who are "bogging" down the Emergency room are located in. It also will make it easy to find for those who are coming in from out of town to use the service.
Teamed Up With Victoria Hospital ER - Should a 24 hr clinic be opened, with appropriate services and located near the hospital, then if they determined that a patient needed Emergency care a simple protocol could be set up. Call the ER advise of the patient's imminent arrival, the patient's situation and then digitally/electronically forward the preliminary assessment and any work ups that have already been done. This would effectively reducing stress on both the ER and the patient.
EvenMoreAnnoyed (Guest)
DragonTammer (Guest)
@Zathis
Just wanted to clear something up. Being brought in by ambulance does not get you seen right away. My son got injured and we were afraid he had a neck or spinal injury, so we called 911 and got an ambulance. The came and assessed he likely had a broken or dislocated collar bone, we were immediately taken to ER and into the back area, where he sat in a chair in extreme pain for approx 5 hrs before he was even seen!!!
So really you should actually know what you are talking about before you say something. I did not have the money at the time for the ambulance but was not taking the chance of paralyzing my son if he indeed did have a neck or spinal injury. And NO coming in and ambulance did not get him seen immediately!!
What it got me was: the piece of mind that I did not move my son after an accident and possibly cause him permanent damage, it also got me a major ambulance bill: a 6 hr wait in the ER where I witnessed a lady bring her son in and after a few hours of sitting in the waiting room, lie about his symptoms so that he would be seen immediately (she knew the protocol real well for what take precedence over what) and it turned out her son was just fine not a thing wrong with him, as well it got me the wrong diagnosis for my son's injury, which I got a call about 2.5 weeks later to tell me that he was indeed more injured that the doctor originally told us! BUT NEVER IN ANY WAY DID IT GET US A TWO TIER TYPE OF SERVICE, WE WAITED HORRIBLY LONG JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!
Derp (Guest)
Display Name (Registered User)
j (Guest)
yomomma (Guest)
yomomma (Guest)
gramma (Guest)
GR (Guest)
I wonder if everyone understands: a clinic is managed by the doctors who staff them. Those doctors leave hospitals after gaining some experience, and become business people, paying their overhead and employees, and seeing us on regular business hours. They do this, because they don`t like being in the hospital at 2:30 am, anymore than we do.
If I was an experienced doctor, I would not bother going through all the trouble of becoming a business owning practitioner, just so I could work the same ungodly hours I already had.
This is one of those issues voting won`t effect. It`s entirely a question of free-will and supply/demand.
If the government intervened and started funding an all night medical support building, it would be called "a hospital"
Tim (Registered User)
.
--> It is so hard to find a job in the heath care field because of the lack of jobs in the province.
.
This is called a job creation strategy:
-->We could make more jobs here in OUR city and keep Saskatchewan students IN the province.
Oh really? (Guest)
momma of 4 (Guest)
Oh really? (Guest)
kristal (Registered User)
Display Name (Registered User)
Display Name (Registered User)
kristal (Guest)
Peg (Registered User)
The person who died in a Winnipeg waiting room *wasn't* a vagrant. He had just come from a doctor's appointment with a doctor's recommendation that he go to the hospital for further investigation into his problems. He sat there for 36 hours before anyone noticed that there was something wrong. Turns out, as I remember, he had a blood infection that could have been easily caught and treated had someone thought to consider him more than a vagrant. He was in a wheelchair, not a regular waiting room chair.
I sincerely doubt that the medical staff are incapable of telling the difference between a life threatening situation and a wait-a-sec one. As for whether or not to treat a drunk or an inmate first, I should think that it all depends on the situation. Concussion, for example, doesn't care if you're drunk, sober or a hockey player. And it's not always something that can be treated 'later'.
If an inmate needs tending after hours, then it's most likely something that can't be handled by the infirmary. Inmates require constant supervision and, as has been proven in all manner of places, given half an opportunity, some will try to escape custody. To lessen that risk, inmates are brought in, treated and then returned to prison. Or would you rather have a hostage situation where you or your kid is kidnapped by an escaping inmate to be used as a shield? Or maybe you'd just rather they held the nursing staff hostage? That would get you treated in a hurry, too, wouldn't it?
Dallas, with all due respect, not everyone has a firm grasp of written English. It's rude to equate literacy skills as a requirement to being respected and dealt with courteously.
Closed PAGuy (Registered User)
Display Name (Registered User)
megan (Registered User)
I want to thank you again for using SeeClickFix to document issues in Prince Albert. As I mentioned earlier, complaining about an issue can only get you so far. It may be more prudent to start collaborating and brainstorming possible solutions to bring up to your public officials. In fact, has anyone signed up local gov't officials to receive alerts in this area?
Similarly, unconstructive or disrespectful comments (i.e. personal attacks) may be removed in the future. Please help us make SeeClickFix a safe and respectful environment!
Keep SeeClickFixing!
Reopened Display Name (Registered User)
Oh really? (Guest)
Angel (Guest)
solutions (Guest)
Vlasic (Registered User)
Victim_of_Canada (Guest)
HealthCareWorker (Guest)
HealthcareWorker (Guest)
Legal-Ease (Guest)
there are several issues that need to be dealt with
as the Vic is a repository for all the health issues in the north, something has to happen to sort that issue separately.
Sandy Bay, a community of between 300-400 has on average 2-3 medevacs PER DAY! Every day. the cost of a Medevac flight into/outof there is roughly $10,000. that is $25,000 per day on the Airfare alone. that $9 million a year would go a long way to funding a Hospital in Sandy Bay where it is needed.
other communities have similar situations.
this is not a local issue.
007 (Guest)
Legal-Ease (Guest)
but part of the reason for long delays is the number of folks from outside the P.A. area that are brought in by ambulance
one early Saturday night, my wife and I waited for several hours, in that time, ambulance arrivals averaged 4/hr.
and when you see how many are brought in by airplane, Everyday, you start to realize that our Health system is severely understaffed, and lacking the logistics.
Even worse is when you hear about closing down ER's like in S'toon! P.A. has only one now.
but my main point is Money is being wasted on travel and NOT on Care!
quest (Guest)
guest (Guest)
guest (Guest)
how is it that people with spinal injuries are denied any investigation or any help at the Vic or walkin clinics,
Closed PAGuy (Registered User)