Hello,

Please forward this complaint/email to the CEO and President and Director and Head of ER of Credit Valley Hospital, they should all be aware of the nurses they have hired in the ER department, they are employees that I believe should never be allowed to work with people ever again and they should be removed from the ER before something serious happens to a patient who is admitted with a life threatening ailment.

My name is Gary Anand and I was a patient in the ER on May 6th, 2016 from approximately 1:30am to 4:30am.

I came in with a dislocated shoulder and was in a lot of pain, walking to the car, the car ride to the hospital, coughing and even sitting were all very painful and it was a non stop piercing pain worse than I ever experienced in my life and I have dislocated the shoulder more than 50 times in my life.

When I arrived at the hospital I provided my health card and registered was taken to a room in the ER right away and was put in a room with a bed. I was hopeful that I would be looked after immediately and the doctor or a resident would pop the shoulder back in for me soon, but that did not happen.

I am making this complaint because there were 5 nurses in the ER chatting about clothes, the news, making jokes about patients and laughing non stop while myself and what sounded like a elderly woman were crying in pain. That was the most unprofessional scene I have ever seen in a hospital in my entire life and I have probably been to a hospital 100 times mainly for family and friends. Nurses laughing out loud while patients are in pain crying and not even being acknowledged, there is nothing more upsetting to me and I’m sure a lot of other people than when you’re in antagonizing pain and nurses 5 metres away who should be helping you are chatting and laughing out loud while making jokes about other patients.

It took 30 minutes of me crying in the room before a nurse even came to acknowledged me and the entire time they were all standing 5 metres away chatting and laughing.

A male nurse came and I asked how long the doctor would be, he said he did not know. I asked if he could give me a pain killer and he said he would find out from the doctor if he could give me one but he did not return for about a half hour and when he did he didn’t have any pain killers with him and advised he was waiting to hear back, he took my blood pressure and left.

Another female nurse came to put in the IV and I asked her when the doctor would come, she said she didn’t know, I asked for pain killers and she said she would find out but never returned.

Another 30 minutes pass and the male nurse came back and was preparing to give me the anesthetic in the presence of a woman who if I remember correctly said she was a anesthesiologist. Then suddenly a male nurse who I had not seen yet came in the room and took the nurse and the anesthesiologist away and I did not see them again.

I tried to get comfortable while waiting for someone to come by but couldn’t find a spot where there was no pain in my shoulder and eventually the pain was just unbearable and according to my friend my face was turning red because I was not breathing. My friend told the nurse that I was in a lot of pain and that I need a pain killer. A female nurse told her she would look into it.

I waited almost an hour and my friend went to tell another nurse that I was in a lot of pain and looked like I was going to faint. I did feel dizzy at the time. The nurse still took 20 minutes and brought me the smallest pill I have ever seen and said it was morphine. I spent another hour in incredible pain waiting for the pill to kick in but it never did. My friend who is also a nurse advised that for someone my size (210 lbs) I should have been given atleast 2 of those morphine pills or something much stronger for the amount of pain I was in.

That is when I realized that this was just the most unprofessional staff of nurses in the world. Even my friend who is a nurse and has worked at a few hospitals in the GTA said she could not believe how unprofessional the nurses were at this location especially since Trillium is renowned as one of the best groups of hospitals in the country. She said she was shocked and could not believe they were talking and laughing about other patients. This is when I decided to leave. She encouraged me to stay until the doctor came back but after 3 hours of waiting in absolute horrendous pain which for the last hour felt more like a stabbing in my shoulder and because I was stuck in a crouching position on the bed my neck and back started to really hurt as well.

My friend kept saying to stay but I took off the electrodes from my chest and took the IV needle out.

I put my shirt on and started walking very slowly from the room to the ER exit. The nurse who came in and took the male nurse and anesthesiologist away was sitting on his computer and looked right at me. The nurse that put the IV in was giggling with another nurse who I had not seen before an they both stared at me with big smiles on their faces as I was walking towards the exit.

The last time I had a dislocation that I could not put back in myself was back in 2010, I went to the Mississauga hospital and right away nurses and a resident doctor were looking after me. The resident tried to move my shoulder to put it back in but could not, then the doctor tried to move my arm to put it in but could not so they gave me a anesthetic and the resident then put it in while I was knocked out in the presence of the doctor and 2 nurses. The entire visit to the hospital lasted approximately half hour and that is with a full waiting room that night and the doctor running around from room to room spending only minutes with each patient.

This experience at Credit Valley Hospital was the worse experience for unprofessional employees I have ever witnessed and my nurse friend said it was the first time she met nurses that were very unprofessional and just didn’t seem to care about the patients. I knew after my visit I was going to write this complaint and told my friend today and even though she is a nurse she agreed that the head of the department should be notified about the way these grown up nurses were acting last night.

Just so you are not surprised I will be sharing this complaint with the Ontario Ministry of Health and another doctor friend of mine suggested I send it to some other health organization as well. Also, I have video proof of the laughing that was going on in the administration area of the ER. My nurse friend counted 5 nurses who were involved but she would not record them with my phone for me so all I have is the audio recording of them laughing loudly.

I encourage you to do something about these nurses that do not have any customer service skills and should not be around people in any job ever again. My case was not life threatening obviously but one day there might be a life threatening case and a person could end up dying in your hospital waiting for 5 nurses to stop laughing before they acknowledge a patient.

Thank you,

Gary Anand