When Tim Kennedy thinks back to his emergency room experience this past summer, he knows he could have died.
The Fredericton-area man went to the ER at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on Aug. 24 in extreme pain. After nearly 10 hours in the waiting room, he began vomiting blood, and he knew he needed help urgently.
“I approached one of the nurses to say that I was in pain. And I started to vomit blood. So she came out and she put an IV in my hand,” he recalled.
“And she said that she would talk to the doctor. And probably about half an hour later, I went and asked what was happening … and they had said the nurse that was looking after me had left her shift.”
To make matters worse, patients in the waiting room were informed that there had been a major car crash, which meant they likely wouldn’t be seen until the morning.
“I just couldn’t hack the pain anymore and I didn’t know what to do. And they said, ‘There’s nothing we can do. You’re just going to have to wait your turn,'” he said.
“The sad part is, I looked around the waiting room and there were people that were bleeding, that needed stitches who were there longer than me. The elderly that were just lying in the hallways and waiting to be seen. And no one was coming out to see them.“
Kennedy says he decided to take matters into his own hands. He and his wife made the hour-long drive to the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, N.B., where he was treated within an hour and spent several days in hospital.
It turned out he had a perforated bowel.
“If it had ruptured, I could have died. So to wait that long to try and get medical help was just so frustrating.”
‘Take the bull by the horns’
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In a statement to Global News, the president and CEO of Horizon Health Network said the health authority takes patient concerns seriously.
“On behalf of Horizon, I’d like to express sincere regret for the experience this patient encountered in one of our Emergency Departments, as well as the pain and anxiety this situation has undoubtedly caused,” Margaret Melanson wrote.
She went on to say they “rigorously review and follow up on any incidents” that don’t meet their standards.
“We are actively working to improve access and reduce wait times through various initiatives, including the expansion of primary care services and innovative approaches to improve patient flow across our network,” she added.
As part of the move to ease patient flow, Horizon Health has introduced a new assessment for alternative level of care (ALC) patients — those who have been medically discharged but are waiting for a bed in another facility.
However, ALC patients still occupy a third of acute care beds across the network.
Kennedy says his experience will be a guiding factor in how he votes in October’s provincial election.
“I’m definitely going to be voting for that candidate that’s willing to step up and look after our health-care system and look after our seniors…. The candidate that I’m going to be looking at is the one that’s actually going to take the bull by the horns and actually do something to help our medical system,” he said.
Kennedy moved to the area from Ontario, and hasn’t been able to find a family doctor — a struggle he shares with 180,000 other New Brunswickers.
He relies on a walk-in clinic but points out that if you don’t call first thing in the morning, there are no appointments available. The only way he can describe the situation is “awful.”
“People are dying because they can’t get doctors and they can’t see doctors, and it’s just wrong,” he said.
“The government has to do something to step in and intervene with our medical system.”
Campaign promises to improve health care
On the campaign trail, party leaders have been touting their health plans for the province.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt, campaigning Tuesday in St. Stephen, said the party would change the compensation model for doctors and increase the number of residency spaces for doctors in training.
The Liberal plan also promises to streamline the process for recognizing the credentials of foreign-trained doctors and other health professionals.
“We need to innovate in how we recruit health-care professionals,” Holt said. “A centralized departmental model that continues to focus on vacancies instead of health-care professionals hasn’t worked.”
On Monday, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs promised to reduce health-care wait times by expanding the scope of practice of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, paramedics and pharmacists.
The Green Party has made an election promise to invest $380 million annually to fix the primary health-care system.
During the provincial election campaign, Global News wants to hear from you. Please get in touch to let us know what issues and stories are top of mind, and why.
You can email us at newbrunswick@globalnews.ca
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