Hospital gridlock

Too many patients combined with a lack of health-care resources has put the regional hospital in a state of gridlock, resulting in cancelled surgeries and long wait times for proper care, says a hospital official.

Dr. George Derbyshire, chief of staff at the regional hospital, said Tuesday that an overflow of patients has caused the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre to become overwhelmed and not able to meet the increased demand. Unable to meet demand, the hospital has had to cancel surgeries and place extra beds in the hallways.

"We have 25 patients in emergency waiting for admission and 77 patients filling hospital beds who need care more than they can receive at home," Derbyshire said. "I think it’s just the beginning of our bad season. I call it the bad season because there is the flu season and we don’t want to see (overflow of in-patients) continue. Our staff is stressed, our patients are stressed and I don’t think we can deliver the quality of care that we want to deliver to people."

The hospital added 23 beds to its existing 375. Despite this, some patients continue to wait for a bed, he said.

Derbyshire said there needed to be a regional effort to try and access more beds for acute patients who need long-term care and better transfer systems for out of town patients.

Patients with minor illnesses should expect to wait for several hours but patients with more serious conditions such as chest pain will be admitted immediately, he said.

"This is not a new problem but it’s a problem that seems to be escalating," he said.

Hospital CEO Ron Saddington said the hospital has experienced gridlock before, but not to the extent that they have faced in the last 21 days. He added the hospital is close to 110 per cent occupancy.

The problem isn’t with the hospital but the with the health-care system and more resources at the other levels of care such as supportive housing or other long-term care facilities, he said.
"We’re doing our best to accommodate the demands placed on us," Saddington said.

"It is not appropriate and it is not good care to have those folks waiting days to be admitted into an acute care bed. It isn’t the minor injuries that are causing the problems it’s people who are acutely ill who need to be put in the appropriate places and we can’t do that."