Have Your Say: Emergency room wait times

When the five-centimetre cut became infected, Wenzoski's partner, Krystal Davis, drove him first to the emergency room in Beausejour, Man. Staff there said they could not care for Wenzoski and the couple drove 35 minutes to the hospital in Selkirk.

After a seven-hour wait in Selkirk, a doctor told them Wenzoski would need surgery and they were sent to the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre.

A 45-minute drive later, the couple arrived at Health Sciences Centre, checked in with staff and were told a doctor would see them as soon as possible.

The couple waited for three days.

Wenzoski's hand was "swelling more and more by the minute," Davis told CTV.ca.

He had not been given pain medication or antibiotics.

Davis says she constantly asked doctors and nurses when they were going to get seen and they were always told a doctor would visit them soon.

"We were ready to walk out, but I knew that if we did, his hand would worsen," Davis said.

When a doctor finally examined Wenzoski, he cut into his hand and left the nearly eight-centimetre gash open, exposing joints and bones, Davis said.

The couple asked to change hospitals and they were sent to St. Boniface. Wenzoski was treated immediately and remained in hospital for two weeks, during which time he was rehydrated and given antibiotics.

He now has a permanent four-inch scar on his hand. Despite undergoing physical therapy his hand no longer has a full range of motion, which affects Wenzoski's work as a mechanic.

Davis says the couple thought about seeking financial compensation for their ordeal. But, "we're not going to waste our money on a lawyer."

Find out about other readers' tales of woe in hospital emergency departments.

Comments are now closed for this story

Dwight S.
said

There is no way that anyone should have to wait 34 hrs. in Emerg.
But, in saying this, allot of the problems re the long wait time, is people coming intto the Emerg. Dept.with something that could be taken care of in a Clinic.
I/E/ COLDS---SORE TOE---STUFFED UO CHEST, ETC, ETC, ETC.
I used to work at a Hospital, & believe me this actually happens.
I am not sticking up for anyone in saying what I have said, as there are allot of "VERLAZY"staff working not only in the Emerg. Dept., but throughout the rest of all hospitals as well.
If you have something wrong that can wait until you can get to a Clinic, please do so, as it wil cut down the waiting time in the Emerg. Dept. allot.

steve z
said

i cannot believe most of the comments on here. ruth mcmahon is close to identifying the real issues. i cannot believe the number of times i've been in the er to see "patients" that obviously should be seeing their family doctor or a walk in. "ER" means emergency room, not "i have a cold what should i do?". the er staff are overworked, under staffed and these "patients" do not help. and no i do not work in the field.

S.Bates
said

I have had many bad experiences @ PLC in Calgary. My mom had 13 strokes in 5 yrs and to obtain approraiate teatment I had to threaten the hospital director to call the media in regards to her awful treatment.
I had a tubal pregnancy for which they let me go for 2 weeks knowing full well it was a tubal.
My grandma died they told her children to go get her things form her room. When they wnt to retrieve them they found their mother dead & naked lying on her hospital bed for all to see.
I have been to other hospitals and yes the waits are long and inconvient but considering what the PLC has to offer I will gladly wait

Sylvia
said

I think the problem lies in the individual hospital's administration and its policies towards service delivery. I have had various medical problems over the years, some very serious, and I can honestly say I have always received excellent and prompt care at the St. Boniface Hospital. Not so at the Concordia - one visit there and I will never go back. While waiting to see a doctor there with a 104 degree temp and what was later diagnosed at the St. Boniface hospital as pneumonia (the attending at Concordia saw me for one minute, no exam, declared I had the flu and sent me home), I witnessed the most unacceptable racist behaviour from the triage nurse towards an Aboriginal man who very obviously had a fractured foot. Not only did she make him wait with nothing for pain, after he had been waiting quietly and patiently about three hours she made him take off his sock and roll up his pants in front of the waiting room and stand on the injured foot to 'prove' to her he was really hurt and to ensure he wasn't "wasting her time". No one else in the waiting room was required to 'prove' they had a right to be at the hospital ... I am grateful for our universal medical care but agree, often the 'caring' in healthcare has been forgotten.

Sandra Sukhan
said

I had the misfortune of going to the Health Sciences Centre Emergency Room on Sept. 16, 2008 with my father who was bleeding profusely from the ear from a cancerous tumour. We waited almost 30 minutes just to register with the Triage nurse who was not at the desk when we arrived. The nurse basically said that since my father was not bleeding to death, he could wait his turn. We waited almost 5 hours. The treatment by staff toward most clients was despicable at best so it is not surprising that a man would be dead and none of the staff would notice. Somehow we expect nurses and doctors to aspire to a higher standard of care than the average person, but sadly, it was not the case at HSC.

Fay
said

When the NDP came to power in Manitoba , it was with the message to end hallway medicine. Now years later under the NDP we can not even get to the hallway for medicine. The NDP have let us down. Manitobans deserve better!!!

Emee Whyte
said

Everyone has an atitude now-a-days, that they should receive top treatment, but when the tables are reversed, they don't give a hoot!!

No one takes pride in their jobs, neighbours, fellow workers, etc. Look at how we fix our problems. Guns, stabbings, and beatings. Our kids are subject to parents having this kind of behaviour, but then they are appalled, when they receive the same from their kids.

What goes around, comes around. No doubt about it. It's time to wake up and be nicer to ourselves, our kids, and each other. Treat others, as you would like to be treated. It's an old saying, but never a truer one!!!

Joe
said

My wife waited 12hours in the emergency room even though she had been told by her surgeon to go there if she neede immediate care. Her surgeon never answered his pages and they left her sitting on a chair. She had a 14cm X 16cm pseudo cyst on her pancreas. It wasn't until I arrived at the hospital and started making a scene that anything was done to comfort her.

Jo
said

This is nothing short of a travesty - a huge stain on Manitoba's faultering health "care" system. What ever happened to the word "care" in health care? I hate to say this but Winnipeg just got a taste of what it is like to not have a properly staffed and operating emergency dept. For example if you look in the Assiniboine REgional Health Authority you will find 9 Emergency depts in 9 communities have lost their ER services all together!
How many more people will die before the NDP government takes positive, immediate and responsible action. RHA's need to be held far more accountable.

No ER visitor, unless I'm not breathing!!
said

ps...THANK YOU to the many techs, nurses,doctors, ward clerks and triage people who work in the ER!! A sometimes thankless job with overwhelming pressure to move patients up to where there are NO beds. To those waiting its not their fault, complain to Mr. Harper!!

Mike M
said

I agree that there are hardworking medicla folks out there. I just don't see alot of them 'hustle' in teh ER areas - and in the summer of 2007 - I spent a number of late nights in the Misericordia Emergency ward, with few people there. You just wait and wait. You see, unions HATE change and accountability. There are many ways to improve the services we in ER's recieve. It's just a matter of thinking creatively - which unions cannot do.

ER visitor only if I'm not breathing!!
said

Having listened to the many comments here I notice that while many are "valid concerns"; many are of people who go to Emerg on a Friday night after working all week because they think its "outpatients." It is for emergencies, which does not mean you are an emergency because you have a 4 5 pain level and are breathing fine. Go to bed, rest (hotels are for travellers) and take a pain reliever. Emergencies are NOT the many who go out on a weekend drinking, get in a barfight and both combatants and their friends arrive at the ER expecting treatment. I saw one guy fly from the DR with a sprained ankle because he jumped off a bar stage there "drunk" with x-rays in hand expecting some kind of different treatment here???? BLAME most of it on federal coffers being held from the provinces, but much of the clogging up is due to non-emergencies that can wait for your GPs advice, or a few tylenol, drink plenty of fluids and go get some rest. Sorry to those with REAL emergencies!!

Sheryl
said

The emergency room in almost any hospital I have been to is really lacking staff and space to deal with real emergencies that can be life threatening. My boyfriend has had to make two trips to the Calgary Foothills hospital for emergencies. Both ended up with serious surgery. What really ticked me off is the last time. He was in terrible pain in his abdomen. We had no idea what it was and the nurses would come out and ask what his pain threshold was and he would tell them it is a 10. He waited for several hours only then to be told there was no beds in emergency and would have to wait longer. After 14 hours of bearing with the pain in an uncomfortable waiting room chair, he was seen and then sent for emergency surgery for a blocked bowel. It could have been way worse.
I noticed a woman miscarry while waiting to be seen. Something has to be done for emergency care.

Maureen Hubbert
said

I have not had reason to utilize the ER frequently but did need the attention 1 1/2 yrs ago. I fell and sustained a fracture to my right wrist/arm. I was triaged, X-rayed, casted and on my way home in 3 hrs. I was also given information on bone density studies. This is good Tx for an injury that had no life threatening implications and NYGH was busy that pm.

Mykey, The Lakehead
said

Madelaine,

Strangely enough, my father worked at Sunnybrook Veteran's Hospital for 25 years as an Orderly.

Following 15 years of volunteer service there, he passed away at Scarborough General in 1994.

Perhaps his presence was with me that day at St. Michael's.

M.Donnelly, R.N.
said

It's tragic what happened to that man in Manitoba, but I can see how that can happened. Emergency is always a very busy place, mostly because many people abuse and misuse our healthcare system , which I may add, is imperfect, but superior to the States! I agree...how scary would that be to have to be a situation where one cannot to pay astronomical healthcare bills! Canadians should be grateful for what we have! And the government needs to do many things to improve our system!! They need to educate the public re: alternatives to going to emergency! Not every cough and temp and sliver is an emergency!! They also need to free up beds on units in the hospitals ( build more longterm care facilities) so the people in emergency who do need a bed, will get one and those awaiting longterm carecan be transferred instead of taking up an acute care bed for sometimes 2 -3 months!!!! Does anyone realize the cost of this????? Does anyone realize if they were in the States how much that would cost or even if our government chose to implement some kind of fee that forced payment for taking up a bed for non-medical reasons!!!! And let's not forget about the doctor and nursing and lab techs (etc) shortage????? That impacts the whole system too! Lastly, this isn't McDonalds where u can get service in under 5 minutes! Doctors and nurses are doing the best they can in a system where they are doing more and more with fewer resources!

Madelaine
said

I had to go to Sunnybrook this past summer due to a respiratory infection. (I also have asthma, which made breathing difficult). It took one hour for a nurse to administer the vapourized inhalation treatment that asthmatics should receive ASAP in similar ER situations. In addition, I was told a doctor would see me - I waited four hours and still no doctor. I walked out and went to a nearby walk-in clinic.

However, I do want to make mention of a positive experience with Scarborough General Hospital two summers ago, again, for a respiratory infection. In less than one hour, not only did I receive the needed (vapour) treatment, an ER doctor also examined me. Thank you SGH!

Mykey, The Lakehead
said

About a dozen years ago I lived in downtown Toronto and sustained a serious cut to the base of my left thumb. I made my way to St. Michael's Emergency and had barely reported to the front desk when a nurse approached me and asked that I roll up my sleeve for a tetanus shot.

Shortly thereafter a doctor arrived and after carefully cleaning the wound, stitched it up and applied a bandage. My visit to the Hospital lasted less than half an hour. I'll always remember that I was treated so well.

Melissa Montreal
said

I was sent to an emergency room in Montreal by my OBGYN, because I had a miscarriage and needed surgery. I waited 12 hours to see the doctor on call, who said she would not operate on me because I was an American. My husband gently persuaded her to do the surgery, so that I would not have to wait in emergency two more days for the next obgyn. She finally agreed to do the surgery, but for a week after it, I was having severe contractions. I went back to the emergency room, because I could not stand or walk due to the intensity of the contractions. None of the staff took me seriously and instead of examining me, they gave me psychological tests. I believe at least three rounds of doctors gave me psych evaluations, before a fourth doctor decided to do a physical exam and order an ultrasound. At that point I had been in Emergency for more than a day. The ultrasound showed that the surgeon had left part of the fetus and surgical sponge or gauze in me. I was experiencing toxic shock and had to have surgery immediately. While I was having the second surgery, the doctor who botched the first surgery called my home personally asking where her money was, since I had to pay out of pocket. When my husband called her back to tell her that we were at the hospital having emergency surgery and would have to come by her office the next week, she demanded that he come to her office that very day and pay her. We had to pay the two surgeons, the anaesthisiologists and various other medical bills, and did not have the money or the energy to take legal action.

Linux Jon
said

As a tax paying Canadian I think our long waits and the reasons behind them are a very bad joke. An expensive bad joke.
Michael Moore is wrong about how great our system is. There is collosal room for improvement. Example, the cheap paper ID to prove a Manitoban is eligible for medical treatment. It takes 2 nurses, at a 30-60+ minute interval, to ask the same inane questions. Like "have you been here before?" Why is this relevant? Why can't they look it up on their $100 million dollar software sold to us by Ross Perot's company? I could design a better system. Or Walmart could. With their supply chain management expertise medical treatment would be fast, efficient with minimal wait times and the medical staff would be paid fair market value.

Canadian Living/Working in the US
said

Well I can sure appreciate the comments on how long the wait is in a Canadian hospital for care, but I can honestly say that it is not much better here in the US. I have been furious since I have moved down here 3 months ago to see what the costs of health care is for Americans to see that really they are no better off than we are with universal health care.

Last month I had to make a trip to the hospital to get some stitches for a cut and although bleeding profusely I still had to wait almost 5 hours just to be seen. Watching CNN the other day they said that 1.83 million Americans went bankrupt in 2007 due to medical bills.

In todays day and age I would rather wait my turn in a Canadian Hospital and not have a bill or worry about how I was going to pay that bill.

Quite frankly even though it sucks having to wait your turn I will bet that if you were brought in in critial condition you would be at the front of the line. I will never bitch again because I know that even though it is a long wait, I am not going to lose my house or my way of life because I can not afford to get sick.

Phillip Huggan
said

Patient wait times and the preference of levelling peak loads with non-busy times are the externailities not being costed here.
One solution is to make Universal Health Care cover taxi rides for non-urgent patients to other less busy Emergency Rooms.
Hospitals would need to be networked and keep track of how many patients are in queue. Simple enough.

R Rutledge R.N.
said

This all comes down to ignoring or devaluing the "standards of care" that true professionals are trying to maintain. The "care" has left the building!
This has become prominent in our Canadian health care system at this time. The saving of dollars is now made the priority, not lives.
Nurses with experience,the mentors of newer nurses, have become the voices of alarm (the canaries of the coal mine). They have been generally made to shoulder more and more of the workload and responsibility. They burnout, get worn out or get forced out, and are replaced by new grads that are inexperienced and voiceless and therefore; on paper fill in empty workload assignments, as well as cost less.
In B.C. where I've worked for over 20 years, in multiple emergency departments, from large to isolated, have found this to be precisely the case.
The standard that is foremost on entering the emergency department, the "triage area" is called "the nurse first" protocol; in that upon first entering the ER department, the clients first encounter and assessment should be done by a "Triage trained" R.N.
With staffing shortages, lack of mentors and decreased standards of care, there are probably many more unfortunate and horrific experiences to come, at the cost of saving dollars over lives.

A. Lissenberg
said

Aug 2008 my 66 year old (diabetic) mother-in-law fell off her bike breaking her left shoulder and a finger on her right hand. She was brought to Seven Oaks emerg after the accident and was released a short time later even though she is a widow, lives on her own and couldn't use either arm/hand. A few days later she was admitted to HSC for surgery. She was told to fast the night before. The surgery was postponed for several days while she remained on an IV drip for fluids and morphine. When it became apparent they were not going to operate, they got her dressed, disconnected her IV and sent her in a cab to St. B. and was only verbally told St. B. would do the surgery. She had no ID, no paperwork regarding the surgery, and no one accompanied her for the ride. The taxi driver brought her to the front door with her bag of extra clothing and she hooked it onto a pinky and carried it to the emerg. area where she was told they had no record/info from HSC about her having surgery at St. B. She was left on a chair in the hallway and out of sheer exhaustion broke down and only then did they give her a bed and less than an hour later she was operated on. This is just a summary of what was an unbelievable and difficult experience by our family with the hospitals. Even sader, it is just 1 of many stories of the poor shape our medical system is in!

Rob
said

Went to Sunnybrook in pain with herniated disc issues, possible cauda equina syndrome on a Friday night last year. Only one doctor scheduled for the entire ward (40 beds). Busiest night of the week and the waiting area filled up to the rafters while the one doctor did their best to make rounds. Was convinced no one wanted to be scheduled on Friday and this one doctor drew the short straw. Place was packed, with some really suffering, ALL night. Day shift arrived the next day and the place cleared in a matter of a few hours.

Marlene
said

I think our health care system is prejudiced ... Our health care system all over Manitoba is a mess ... well at least 80% of it.. I must admit that sometimes you will meet a nice person, but that is not so often..
The time is now to start dealing with the system. and putting out better Doctors and Nurses in our emergency areas.. We need more caring people in our health system.

R. Delaney
said

This past Thursday Sep. 18/08 my father in law was taken to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. He is Palliative and has several cancers. His morphine is every 90 mins. He was left for 1h 45minutes in a chair and then told he would wait at least another 2 hours before anyone could see him. His pain was so bad, that he was taken home, and immediately again, an ambulance was called.

There were so many stretcher-bound patients in the Emergency, that it was hard to even walk around them.

I pity the staff, Doctors and Ambulance workers who witness this disgusting display of government indifference while all the while their 'spin doctors' who are paid handsomely, write some lame garbled excuse to give to the public. Plain and simple, they are passing the buck and letting people die. Governments will fall in elections when they neglect health care. Don't get sick in BC !!!!

Jillian and Barb Zarney
said

My Dad was diagnosed with a tumor is his left leg and the countless times we spent in the ER at the grace hospital and health sciences has left my family with a very bitter taste in our mouth's with the Manitoba Health system. When things first came about he took an ambulance to the Grace and waited 14 hours to hear "we don't have a specialist" and doctors refused to see him. The orthopedic surgeon said he wasn't urgent enough, and eventually he was sent home. Then when he went to the health sciences centre, he again waited and waited and was admitted for 2 weeks to hear again "we have no specialist".

He was sent to BC where finally he recieved care, by that time his leg had to be removed. The 8 months my Dad was sick we got nothing but the run-around. If my Dad could have recieved urgent care his leg wouldn't have broke and he may be alive today.

We wrote numerous emails to the minister of health and didn't receive anything, the only acknowledgment we received for the ridiculous "care" my Dad got was a good luck from Stephen Fletcher. Our cries for help we're ignored and my Dad was treated as if his life was worthless, which eventually lead to his death in October of 2007.

Tina Omoerah
said

Names Tina, live in winnipeg. I was so shocked to hear about this as well was my boyfriend. Over last weekend(20th-21rst)I was at HS hospital, and it took a long time for me to see a doctor, and i was in so much pain. All i kept hearing was I need to go back an wait for them to call my name again, then they told me I had to stay over night I had work the nexed day. I had to call my boss at 4am to let her know I felt so bad because it was already late enough!!

And on the news today they said the man that died was in a wheel chair an had has two legs removed, there was a man in a wheel chair 4seats over from me in the waiting room he was breathing the last time I saw him before i went in.

I don't know why the doctors didn't listen to the couple that told 3 doctors and a security guard till they listened an found out. I think our hostpitals need to check up on people alot more, more now that this has happened it worrys other people now. We need to do something, and they need to start now.

Fred - Brandon MB
said

I have endured several incredibly long waits at hospital emergency rooms. The most bizarre was in Portage la Prairie a few years ago. We were heading home Sunday evening to Yorkton after a weekend in Winnipeg. My wife developed a severe migraine so we stopped at the P la P Hospital emergency room, because no walk-ins were open. The place was deserted so we expected a short wait.

After more than 30 minutes I sought out a nurse to find out how much longer. I find several nurses and doctors sitting around having coffee and shooting the breeze. There were no other patients in the emergency. When I asked how much longer the nurse said about another 90 minutes. I questioned why so long when there was no one else there. The nurse said that they had a policy of making all non-emergency patients wait at least two hours before they were seen to encourage people to use walk-in clinics. After I explained that we still had 5 hours left to drive and that we would go to a walk-in if there were one open, she relented and let us see a doctor. A quick shot of Demerol and we were on our way.

Kelly Shaver - Kingston Ontario
said

Imagine if you will, an eight months pregnant woman with a history of two premature babies goes to the maternity ward of a leading Southeastern Ontario hospital with bleeding. The doctors decide they need to find out how big the baby is by way of ultrasound. Unfortunately the maternity ward's two ultrasound machines are BOTH malfunctioning. So because it was a Sunday they are going to have to call in an "on call" ultrasound technician. Six hours later she is wheeled down for her ultrasound only to find out that her baby is in a breech position (bottom first). By this time the woman is 5 cm dilated on her way to delivering. They try and rush her to the OR but alas it was too late and the baby was delivered that way, bum first with no anasthesia. It was very very horrendous for myself and my baby. So just a reminder getting past the ER doesn't mean you're getting quality care.

Ruth McMahon
said

Many people do have extreme waits in emergency that deserve much better. But there is another side to this problem. An unbelieveable number of people who take no responsibility for their own health and present to emergencies for "second opinions" after being seen in a clinic or completely non-urgent matters because they do not want to make the effort to plan and attend appointments with family doctors. There is an extraordinary amount of inappropriate use of emergency services which cause "clogging" of the system and long waits. Emergency departments are also often gridlocked with patients that should be admitted and little has been done to correct this. Emergency staff can't process patients with no available exam space. I just suggest, as someone who has worked in the system for years, that fault for long waits and so called "horror stories" has many sources.

DD
said

To Michael Lynx

It is not the doctor's fault, but the system. It is the hospital system and government healthcare delivery that fail each and every Canadian, not the doctors.

michael lynx
said

Doctors are paid too much for their "competence" and knowledge. I'm talking about 70-80% of them. All respect for the rest!!!!

Tim Devine
said

I am not surprised that this could happen in a Canadian hospital. I can think of any number of hospitals across Canada where this could happen. When you go to the emergency, you can quite literally be taking your life in your hands. I recently had the privilege of spending 16 hours cooped up in an emergency ward in St. John. During that time, I observed one of the most inefficent, bureaucratic organizations that seemed to be more concerned with procedures that working on cures. We like to brag about our great health care. If you look at it carefu,lly, you will find that Canada's health system is a very narrowly defined and ill-run HMO. A person needs secondary coverage to get anything beyond the bare basics of health care. The US system, even though it has its flaws, works better than the Canadian

Mary Munroe
said

Problems like this one can be traced to ineffective check in procedures in ER. My husband was told while on chemotherapy to very quickly get to the ER with a special yellow Chemo patient yellow ID card and not to let an ER make him wait in the public area at any time due to his compromised immunity. When we arrived at ER we were told we had to wait in waiting room until someone could evaluate our needs - point blank! No decision could be made for special treatment until he could be seen by a nurse and we had to sit down and wait for that. The reception staff effectively blocked what the chemo specialist had ordered. Eventually we were seen by the nurse and ushered to a segregated room, long after plenty of opportunity to be infected while waiting for service. This was way beyond frustrating but hopeless to get anything done about. While we don't think he picked up any infection during the wait, it was not because of good management by the ER. We work so hard to find effective treatments for cancer and then the hospital proceeds to sabotage the treatment requirements! No wonder dissatisfaction with our medical system abounds!

Bill Reilly
said

Eighteen months ago I had a heart attack. Fortunately for me, I live in Windsor, Ont. We jumped in the car and drove right to Detroit Medical Center. I arrived at 6 p.m. on a Sunday, out by noon on Tuesday with a cardio-cath and a drug eluding stent in place. Thank God we took out U.S. health coverage. I'd still be in the waiting room or taking a dirt nap in Ontario.

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