The story's the same in every province. Hospitals and emergency rooms are overwhelmed across the country. Due to Canada’s socialized, healthcare monopoly system, access to care in a timely manner will always be a problem until the entire system is reformed. In the meantime, though, there are things that can be done to ease the pressure on hospitals without amending the Canada Health Act.Many people in general hospitals simply don't belong there. I have had a rough year as far as far as the health of my family members go. It has led to my having spent more time in hospital emergency rooms in one year than I have in my entire life. Things just seem to happen in waves.Having been to multiple hospitals I have noticed the emergency rooms all look the same. They are overcrowded with suffering people while harried staff try to keep up. I was at Foothills hospital last month because an elderly family member had had a stroke. The scene was like something from the movies. The waiting area was packed with sick and injured people in emergency. Once you got into the treatment area, there were literally people suffering and lined up on gurneys in the hallways waiting for help. It’s what a person would expect to see after a major disaster or something. This was just a typical afternoon.To take some of the pressure from hospitals we must start identifying who really needs to be there and who doesn’t. Canada’s system packs so many services into hospitals, they become overwhelmed. They are trying to be everything to everybody rather than the acute care centres they are should be.Mental health services must be decoupled from general hospitals. Due to decades of deinstitutionalisation, we have thousands of people who should be receiving long-term mental health care who are on the streets. They are in no condition to manage themselves in the naïve “community living” system we have set up and they end up either on the streets, in jail, dead or in hospitals. If somebody needs mental health treatment, hospitals are the entry point for care. If they have had a breakdown or episode, they are forced head to an emergency room to await help. Last year, my father had a mental collapse. He was paranoid, delusional and prone to wandering. It came on suddenly and for his safety we needed to get him into care. It took rotating shifts of family members to stay with him in the emergency room for 23 hours before he was admitted. Then, he was medicated and placed on a gurney in a hallway for two days before they could get a bed in the psychiatric unit. He spent 40 days in that unit. It is a sparsely equipped wing in the hospital. Staff were excellent and did what they could with him and the rest of the challenging patients in the unit. It was clear that the space was transitional and couldn’t offer the long-term care that most of those committed within it needed. They usually are discharged within days and if they don’t have family to help out, they often end up on the streets.Most mentally ill people who go to the hospital never even get to the psychiatric ward. They are given a prescription, a brochure listing community supports, and are wished well and sent out. It’s not that the doctors are heartless. They just have nowhere else to put people.Its unfair, expensive and ineffective pushing psychiatric patients through general hospitals. The doctor who can set a broken arm likely isn’t well trained to deal with a schizophrenic but that’s what they are tasked with. For people awaiting care for injuries, it isn’t pleasant spending hours in a waiting room with a person melting down with bipolar disorder. A chaotic emergency room setting isn’t settling for a person suffering a mental health issue either.We need mental health facilities separate from general hospitals for both intakes, and longer term care. Yes, we need to expand psychiatric institutions rather than close them. Rest assured, it's more humane for people with mental health issues than jails, homeless shelters and general hospitals are. It will of course take pressure away from emergency rooms too.Likewise, we need fast and separate inpatient care for addicts. They are showing up in emergency rooms and can’t be effectively treated there.Hospitals are often being used as nursing homes when seniors without family advocates find themselves in need of care but haven’t planned for long term care homes. It’s a very expensive and unpleasant way for seniors to spend their final years.Expanding options for practical nurses and general practitioners can reduce emergency room load as well. Many people with minor ailments head to emergency rooms when they could be better treated elsewhere.Creating new facilities and options sounds expensive, but we can’t pretend we aren’t already paying for the addicted and mentally unsound. Dedicated, long term facilities can house and treat people with mental health, addiction and age-related issues much more effectively and at a lower cost than general hospitals can.We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to take pressure from our emergency rooms. We just need to rethink the centralized model that packs everybody into one place for treatment.
The story's the same in every province. Hospitals and emergency rooms are overwhelmed across the country. Due to Canada’s socialized, healthcare monopoly system, access to care in a timely manner will always be a problem until the entire system is reformed. In the meantime, though, there are things that can be done to ease the pressure on hospitals without amending the Canada Health Act.Many people in general hospitals simply don't belong there. I have had a rough year as far as far as the health of my family members go. It has led to my having spent more time in hospital emergency rooms in one year than I have in my entire life. Things just seem to happen in waves.Having been to multiple hospitals I have noticed the emergency rooms all look the same. They are overcrowded with suffering people while harried staff try to keep up. I was at Foothills hospital last month because an elderly family member had had a stroke. The scene was like something from the movies. The waiting area was packed with sick and injured people in emergency. Once you got into the treatment area, there were literally people suffering and lined up on gurneys in the hallways waiting for help. It’s what a person would expect to see after a major disaster or something. This was just a typical afternoon.To take some of the pressure from hospitals we must start identifying who really needs to be there and who doesn’t. Canada’s system packs so many services into hospitals, they become overwhelmed. They are trying to be everything to everybody rather than the acute care centres they are should be.Mental health services must be decoupled from general hospitals. Due to decades of deinstitutionalisation, we have thousands of people who should be receiving long-term mental health care who are on the streets. They are in no condition to manage themselves in the naïve “community living” system we have set up and they end up either on the streets, in jail, dead or in hospitals. If somebody needs mental health treatment, hospitals are the entry point for care. If they have had a breakdown or episode, they are forced head to an emergency room to await help. Last year, my father had a mental collapse. He was paranoid, delusional and prone to wandering. It came on suddenly and for his safety we needed to get him into care. It took rotating shifts of family members to stay with him in the emergency room for 23 hours before he was admitted. Then, he was medicated and placed on a gurney in a hallway for two days before they could get a bed in the psychiatric unit. He spent 40 days in that unit. It is a sparsely equipped wing in the hospital. Staff were excellent and did what they could with him and the rest of the challenging patients in the unit. It was clear that the space was transitional and couldn’t offer the long-term care that most of those committed within it needed. They usually are discharged within days and if they don’t have family to help out, they often end up on the streets.Most mentally ill people who go to the hospital never even get to the psychiatric ward. They are given a prescription, a brochure listing community supports, and are wished well and sent out. It’s not that the doctors are heartless. They just have nowhere else to put people.Its unfair, expensive and ineffective pushing psychiatric patients through general hospitals. The doctor who can set a broken arm likely isn’t well trained to deal with a schizophrenic but that’s what they are tasked with. For people awaiting care for injuries, it isn’t pleasant spending hours in a waiting room with a person melting down with bipolar disorder. A chaotic emergency room setting isn’t settling for a person suffering a mental health issue either.We need mental health facilities separate from general hospitals for both intakes, and longer term care. Yes, we need to expand psychiatric institutions rather than close them. Rest assured, it's more humane for people with mental health issues than jails, homeless shelters and general hospitals are. It will of course take pressure away from emergency rooms too.Likewise, we need fast and separate inpatient care for addicts. They are showing up in emergency rooms and can’t be effectively treated there.Hospitals are often being used as nursing homes when seniors without family advocates find themselves in need of care but haven’t planned for long term care homes. It’s a very expensive and unpleasant way for seniors to spend their final years.Expanding options for practical nurses and general practitioners can reduce emergency room load as well. Many people with minor ailments head to emergency rooms when they could be better treated elsewhere.Creating new facilities and options sounds expensive, but we can’t pretend we aren’t already paying for the addicted and mentally unsound. Dedicated, long term facilities can house and treat people with mental health, addiction and age-related issues much more effectively and at a lower cost than general hospitals can.We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to take pressure from our emergency rooms. We just need to rethink the centralized model that packs everybody into one place for treatment.
