The BC Nurses’ Union is again speaking out this morning about the issue of chronic understaffing in hospitals throughout the Fraser Health region, and the impact it is having on patient care.
In a press release, union president Debra McPherson says, for example, an 87-year-old woman spent last week on a stretcher and a temporary bed in a ‘holding area’ in the ER at Royal Columbian Hospital.
The woman, who had seriously respiratory problems, spent eight hours in a waiting room just to see a doctor.
“With each passing day, we hear more stories of critically ill patients waiting too long to get a bed or be seen by an ER doctor and sometimes they die in the waiting room or hall,” says McPherson in the release. “In Abbotsford, we know patients are consistently forced to spend up to ten days in Emergency waiting for a bed.”
The union wants Health Minister Terry Lake to resolve the overcrowding problem in hospitals and to stop more nurses from resigning or transferring out of emergency rooms due to chaotic working conditions.
“This situation isn’t limited to Royal Columbian Hospital, where ten nurses have left since February,” says McPherson. “It’s an ongoing, chronic problem in many hospitals throughout the Fraser Health region.”
“Abbotsford Regional Hospital has ten to fourteen nursing vacancies in the ER at any given time. Nurses are burned out because of skyrocketing nurse-patient ratios and they won’t go to work on double or even triple overtime, because they so desperately need rest.”
Lake ordered a financial review about four months ago, but McPherson says nothing has been done to resolve the overcrowding issues.
WATCH: Unfiltered with Jill Krop – ER nurses are fed up:
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