An Ontarian spends 24 hours in the emergency room

A 55-year-old man who spent nearly 24 hours waiting for a bed in an emergency room last month says Ontario’s health care system is broken.

Dan Trivett told CTV News Toronto he was involved in a collision in Mississauga on Oct. 26. As a result, he spent three hours at Mount Sinai Hospital for a whiplash evaluation before being sent home.

However, shortly after he started cooking dinner, Trivett says he started feeling severe pain in his abdomen.

« I felt like I was being stabbed with a knife and my ribs were crushed, » he told CTV News Toronto. « [I] pretty much passed out in sweat, tried to call my husband, couldn’t breathe.

The family was eventually able to call 911 and Trivett was rushed to Toronto General Hospital around 2 a.m. He said he waited on a stretcher for about two to three hours with a heart monitor to make sure he didn’t have a heart attack.

During these three hours, the paramedics who transported him in the ambulance stayed by his side.

Next, Trivett was asked to go to a rapid assessment center, which he described as a booth with a reclining chair. He remained there until he was admitted to hospital around 2 a.m., nearly 24 hours after his arrival.

Throughout the experience, Trivett said there was no privacy and he could hear doctors talking with other patients about their condition.

“Everyone was treated around me. I could hear them,” he said.

« I heard the doctor say, ‘we need to get this out’…if you’re sick to your stomach, this isn’t the place you want to be. »

Dan Trivett is seen in this photo taken at the hospital.

Wait times in Ontario’s emergency rooms hit a record high in September.

According to data from Health Quality Ontario (HQO), patients spent an average of 21.3 hours in an emergency room waiting to be admitted. That’s up from 20.7 hours in August and 20.8 hours in July.

Earlier this week, Ontario Liberals called September « the worst September on record since 2008. »

« No matter how you look at this data, whether it’s month-over-month or year-over-year, health care performance continues to fall dramatically and is unfortunately now in freefall, » said MP Dr. Adil Shamji told reporters at a press conference. conference on Wednesday.

An Ontario Health report provided to emergency department executives and chiefs, and disclosed by Shamji, showed there were an average of about 946 patients waiting for a hospital bed in an emergency room across the province. at 8 a.m. every day that month.

« I think back to my last few days in the emergency department when we have a particularly bad day, and patients are waiting for an inpatient bed and there isn’t one, and so they are occupying acute care beds in our emergency department which is designated for new patients,” Shamji said.

“And when there is no room for new patients to be assessed, supported and treated. They move in unconventional spaces.

The report also showed that ambulance offload times had jumped by around 52.5% over the past year, meaning patients waited an average of around 90 minutes before entering a hospital in September. .

This particular part of the process involved Trivett, who was watching the same paramedics who brought him in to stay to monitor his vitals and escort him to the bathroom.

« They couldn’t leave me unattended, » he said. “I felt bad for them because they were off the streets.

« It basically meant that those two and that ambulance were out of service for the time they were with me, which wasn’t the best situation. »

He said he also noticed a number of patients seeking care for things like respiratory illnesses who were eventually sent home after seeing a doctor.

The Ontario government has pledged to add up to 6,000 new health care workers as part of its post-pandemic health care stabilization plan. They also said they would invest in private clinic surgeries and propose legislation allowing hospitals to transfer patients awaiting long-term care to a home they may not have chosen – two ideas that they hope will they will free up hospital beds for acute care patients.

« When you’re feeling down, you won’t be languishing in the ER chair, » Trivett said. “I think the worst thing for me was being in the ER and being moved three times and hearing and seeing everything. You have mental health patients, you have elderly people who have had a stroke or a heart attack, who are at the end of their life and who have no dignity. It’s a bit sad. The system is very faulty.