I got to Sick Kids Emergency at 10:00 pm.

It's 2:50 am now and we are still waiting!

We had a quick evaluation but no word yet....

Ughhhh!!!!

I'll update as we progress.....

Finally seen at 3:20am.

There were a few other kids that night that were high priority....ie. In need of a "jump start" not to be too explicit

A few test and we waited for results...

A few hours of Treatment

We left at 1:00pm the next day...

My kid will be fine and yes Emergency was required....

My heart goes out to the other kids and parents who were not so lucky...

Those Doctors and Nurses have one hell of a tough job..... it really takes a toll on them

I'm not complaining here...just happy everything worked out......

This is just a heads up to where our health care system is heading towards..... a very scary future....


PS. Thats for the kind words guys.

 

Al, I hope everything is OK

 

Hope all worked out...very sorry to hear that you are not being looked after.

 

Al, hope all is okay. I went to emerg at Toronto Western a few months ago for a brain MRI and had to wait 14 hours....

 

That's sad.. Look like Quebec Emergency Hospital where you can easily wait 10 and 12 hours.. :P

 

Sorry to hear, you'd be no quicker in Edmonton, been there, done that.

 

But I thought we had the best health care system in the world?

Don't get me started. At least here in the hammer ER wait times are only 3-5 hours.

 

Hope everything is good.

too many nights in the ER with the kids and waiting and waiting - 10+ hours is not unheard of.

We tried going to various ER's each time but all the same wait times and situations. Really sad.

 

I hope you have a fully charged fone.....

 

Hope you get it resolved. This is why I'd rather drive to Hamilton to McMaster Childrens Hospital, if it's serious. Good luck.

 

We have a Doctor's service in Oakville that charges $40 to make a house call. Many of our friends with young children are using this now for things like ear aches and fevers...

 

Not bad, considering a GP will make ~$31 per office visit (premium of ~$36 for walk-in) from OHIP.

 

Wow, I would happily pay that to avoid both ER waits and also to avoid packaging up a sick or hurting kid into the car, through triage, etc. assuming it's something a house-call appt could handle.

 

I know Peritus knows a bit about healthcare and EMRs. ;-)

Working in the field, I can tell you that the wait time in ERs is not neccesarily an indication of the performance of the hospital/ER. There is much more to consider then just getting the patients in and out as fast as possible. However, you will be happy to know that there is a current Provincial initiative called ED-PIP that is focusing on the performance improvement of ERs across the Province. This iniative is targetted at performance improvement in ERs with as little cost increase as possible. However, be aware that reducing the wait times is only one of the objectives!

There are many, many, moving parts to an ER, and when you begin to understand what is happening in the typical ER, your pity migrates away from the patients waiting 10+ hours and heads towards the nursing staff who have to deal with the realities of process in-efficiency and lack of resources.

Not making any judgements here or relating this to anyone who posted here, but people who complain about long wait times, or people that have left the Emergency department without being seen, and it happens daily, usually are in the wrong place.

Before you head to the ER, call Telehealth Ontario. If it isn't urgent wait until the daytime to go to Emergency, or better yet, visit your family doctor or a drop-in centre the next day.

P

 

No doubt everything you say is true - I couldn't image the stress of working in an ER. Second only to air traffic control, probably.

My point was that this situation is completely unacceptable in this country as far as I'm concerned. We pay through the nose in taxes to support (among other things) our health care system, and furthermore we're prevented by law from seeking out alternatives. Therefore it's incumbent upon the gov't to provide us with top-notch health care, state of the art equipment and acceptable waiting times (which in an ER should be under 30 minutes, IMO). They are failing miserably at this. Imagine if the G20 security money was spent on hiring more nurses and doctors and adding hospital beds. Or the money BC spent on the Olympics. The gun registry. Fantino's air force. e-Health. Caledonia. The list goes on and on and on.

Told ya not to get me started