VERNON – After her father died at Vernon Jubilee Hospital in January a B.C. woman has decided to speak out.
Irena Niebuhr said even though her father’s health was rapidly declining, for hours no doctor came to treat him in person.
Instead a physician talked with his nurses over the phone.
The health authority said the senior received appropriate care.
Niebuhr’s 77-year-old father, who had stage four lung cancer, was in Vernon Jubilee Hospital because of an infection.
However, in January, on what would turn out to be the last Friday evening of his life, when he was seen by a doctor around 5:00 p.m. he seemed to be doing well.
“In fact the doctor said that my dad should get more strength, start exercising and should get ready to go home,” she said.
However, hours later things took a turn for the worst. She said his heart rate climbed alarmingly.
She describes nurses, a respiratory therapist and a doctor on the phone all responding to her father’s case, but no physician coming to her dad’s bedside.
“We kept saying, ‘We need to talk to the doctor! We need to see the doctor!’” she said.
Get daily National news
Niebuhr said she was told they couldn’t see a doctor because hospital protocol said her father should only be seen by the doctor dealing with the case over the phone.
She said it wasn’t till the next morning that her father saw a doctor in person and by that time, she believes, it was already too late.
The senior died two days later.
“I have no doubt in my mind that had there been a physician at my father’s bedside, and had the physician issued prompt orders and been there for the patient that my dad would have been alive today,” Niebuhr said in a late March interview.
Citing privacy concerns and an ongoing complaint process, the Interior Health Authority won’t discuss specific clinical details of this case, other than to say that they have reviewed the situation and found appropriate care was provided.
“I would like to offer our condolences to the family involved in this case. It is always very difficult when a family member passes and as such we take her concerns very very seriously,” said North Okanagan health services administrator Richard Harding.
However, the health authority did confirm their practices around which doctors are responsible for which patients.
There is 24/7 emergency room physician coverage at the hospital, but in the room where Niebuhr’s father started the night he was considered an admitted patient under the care of what’s called the “most responsible physician.”
“With the most responsible physicians predominantly being family physicians or hospitalists they are not on site 24/7. There is constant communication between the nursing staff and the physicians and the physician may choose, depending on the condition of the patient, to attend to the actual hospital,” said Harding.
If you are not in the emergency room, the doctor there won’t treat you.
“The emergency room physicians cannot continue to care for patients beyond the emergency room given the flow that is coming through the department,” explained Harding.
Comments