A painful wait in the Pasqua ER
The Pasqua Hospital’s emergency room was so packed last week that Taylor Thomas sat on the floor by the triage desk until he was seen by a doctor.
The 35-year-old student drove himself to the ER with excruciating back pain around 9 a.m. on Feb. 13.
“I woke up and I could not move,” he said. “I was on my hands and knees in my room crying for an hour. I’ve never been in that kind of pain.”
When Thomas parked outside the ER, he flagged a security officer and asked for help. The officer brought Thomas a transport chair and helped him into it.
But sitting in the rigid chair was too painful so Thomas sat on the floor and was there for nearly two hours before he was examined.
“There were no beds or chairs in the ER — there was absolutely nothing available — the only place was the floor,” he said. “The ERs were extremely busy and there are only two of them in Regina.”
He’s upset a third hospital isn’t on the drawing board to accommodate the city’s growing population.
“I don’t blame the nurses or doctors — they did what they could,” Thomas said. “I happened to overhear that there were 72 people in the ER that day ... Did we need a beautiful new stadium now? Did we need a bypass now? We have all of these upgrades, but our city has expanded so much. Why can’t we do better with our health care?”
Both Regina ERs started experiencing very high patient volumes beginning Feb. 13.
“All I can offer is my apology to that poor fellow,” said Glen Perchie, executive director of emergency and EMS with the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region. “But at the same time, if he was in that much pain and needed to be in the emergency department, then I’m glad he was there.”
Typically, the ERs are busiest between 7 and 9 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to midnight.
Although not as jammed as last week, Regina’s emergency rooms were busy Tuesday. Between the two hospitals, 18 admitted patients were waiting for hospital beds.
At 3 p.m., the Regina General Hospital was at 95 per cent occupancy. The ER had 48 patients — nine waiting for beds on wards.
The Pasqua Hospital was at 101 per cent occupancy. That hospital’s ER had 41 patients — nine waiting for beds. Perchie expected the numbers would climb later in the day.
Last Tuesday, the Pasqua was at 118 per cent capacity and the General was at 100 per cent with 36 patients waiting for beds between the two hospitals.
The RQHR, like many health regions, experiences an annual patient surge from January to March.
The region advises patients requiring emergency care to come to the ER, but notes that family doctors and community walk-in clinics can provide faster service for minor ailments, prescription refills or other non-emergency situations.
The problem is many medical clinics are either closed or take their last patients before 8 p.m.
“We know there is a gap in the community for urgent care, particularly after hours,” Perchie said.
Contributing to the problem is a shortage of about 40 primary physicians in Regina, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
“When you look at that, we’re going to have challenges meeting urgent care in the community,” Perchie said.
When patients don’t require emergency care, they get the best care from family physicians or nurse practitioners who treat them holistically and know them. Yet about 21 per cent of patients coming to the ERs don’t have a primary practitioner, Perchie said.
He recognized the nurses and doctors who worked tirelessly last week when patient volumes in the ER were exceedingly high.
“Patients were kept safe — maybe not comfortable, but safe,” Perchie said. “It’s our staff who stepped up and came in on days off and missed breaks and handled overwhelming loads of patients. I want to applaud them and recognize the commitment that takes.”