For patients to expect the best care possible, is now considered ‘combative’?

Today in the Kamloops Daily News (03/30/12), I was deeply disturbed to read a letter from a husband whose wife has been a patient at Royal Inland Hospital.  He stated:

Instead of being able to recoup and recover she was kept awake all night by patient buzzers in the hall, for three days made to use a public unisex washroom that had a sign put on it that the public was not to use it as it was for the patients in the hallway...of which there were three at that time.

I ask, and have asked before, what kind of care and recovery will a patient have when they are put in hallways to recover?  But that is not the only issue or problem people are experiencing with stays in the hospital.  With limited space available, we now have medical staff who are discussing patient care, and needs, amongst other people who should have NO part in these discussions – they however have no choice.

The letter writer went on to say:

BC Medical Association: ED (Emergency Department) overcrowding requires system-wide solutions

Emergency room problems continue to be in the news again … and in particular, this time around, with Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.

That led me to consider writing my blog comments on the issue.  I don’t need to however … plenty is already being written about it … and has been for years now. 

All I had to do was conduct a Google search for “overcrowded bc hospitals” and in 0.34 seconds six hundred and twenty eight thousand (628,000) items came up … here are just a few

Today’s letters:  Hospital overcrowding nothing new

The situation at the Royal Columbian is not unique to that hospital; most urban hospitals in Canada are facing the same problems. What is unique is that the New Westminster Fire Marshall’s office is seemingly the only government agency that is able to rapidly do what hospital and regional health authority officials seem incapable of doing; acknowledging a threat to the public’s health and rapidly solving it …

Doctors take a stand at overcrowded Royal Columbian

Doctors at the chronically overcrowded Royal Columbian Hospital have announced that starting next week, they will no longer be treating non-emergency patients in the emergency department.   On Tuesday morning, 40 of the 42 emergency beds were occupied by non-emergency patients because regular care rooms were full. The continual lack of beds means doctors have had to treat emergency patients in hallways, other hospital spaces, and even a Tim Horton’s once …