I was at the ER at the Southlake Newmarket hospital with an excruciating pain on January 1st at about 1:30 am. First step was an interview at the “triage desk” with I believe a nurse (big woman with short red hair) that had no patience at all to wait for my answers (how can a nurse not be sensitive with a patient that cannot move because of a kidney stone?), they knew about my health condition because I had been there 2 days before, by-the-way, why should a person that had been there before should undergo to the same kind of questions for the same kind of problem again?
Second step was the registration desk. Again, why someone has to go for registration again since I was there 2 days before? The clerk, that later let me know that her name is Heather, was extremely rude to me, my husband and many other patients that were there at the same day. When I asked her why she was being rude and if she had ever had a kidney stone pain, she answered it by saying that “I am just a clerk and if you have any concerns you should talk to the nurse at the triage desk.” All the time we were there, staff had enough time to chat and laugh while patients were crying in pain like myself.
After 7 hours of waiting, sitting on a broken wheelchair, with no pain killer, no pillow, no blanket, my husband called another big nurse (big woman with black short hair) that was having a very happy conversation with the other nurse if they could give me Tylenol 3 to alleviate my pain, as this big “lady” answered that she could not give me anything before being seeing by a doctor and she also added, “nobody dies by pain and she is not going to be the first.”
My husband also asked the nurses how long it would take to see a doctor and the first nurse said (even though she knew I haven’t been able to pee since Thursday 5:00pm) “there is only one doctor, this is the system and there is nothing we can do, sit down and wait for your time.” My husband was very upset and made the comment…”Is this place really an emergency room? How can a person in such agonizing pain wait for hours for a doctor with no pain killers? What kind of emergency is that? If a kidney stone is not considered emergency, what do you call an emergency then?” I decided to call the PT advocate department and was informed that someone would come out to talk to me, but no one showed up.
Me, and 3 other people were called to get in (one of the patients was not found because he gave up waiting – I saw many people doing that even before going to the triage desk when they were told that the waiting time could be more than 8 hours). Why do patients have to be called by groups? If it is an emergency, why people are not called one by one as soon as they have available beds or cubicles? I was then placed at what they called “yellow zone”…after waiting there for more than an hour, I asked a nurse (a young lady with a dark hair in a pony tail) that came from the place with beds and cubicles, how long I would have to wait in order to get in there, as she literally laughed on my face and said that “it takes 5 to 6 hours waiting time at the “yellow zone””…I was going to ask her why should we wait that long, when from outside I could see 3 empty beds but she gave me her back and rushed away.
My husband went to the emergency room in order to call again the PT advocate and complain about the whole situation and what he was informed that someone from that department would come out to talk to him, no one ever showed up. After about one more hour waiting, I was called to get into one of the cubicles inside the “yellow zone”…thank God the doctor at this time was very professional and able to arrange me to go and see a urologist at the Markham hospital (I had no option, it would be going there or waiting for days to see an urologist there)…the nurse was also very qualified.
I am very upset with the whole situation…I do not believe that this is a humane treatment, the only thing I had to alleviate my pain was an empty coca cola bottle that my husband was filling out with hot water from the sink and I was applying at the kidney. I will be posting a report on the YouTube about the whole happening as soon as I get better, People were saying that it won’t make any difference if I complain or not, but I do believe that the health situation in Ontario is the way it is now exactly because people believe that nothing can be done or changed…I, on the other side think that we have to speak up in order to be heard and that is what I will do.
MSoares.