My 80 year old grandmother needs dialysis 3 times a week because of kidney failure and she also has a malignant tumor (making her unable to sit for long periods of time without pain and bleeding). She is otherwise totally bright and intelligent.
Last week we took her to Foothills Hospital emergency because the dialysis clinic recommended it due to internal bleeding. They called ahead and sent her information. We arrived at 2:00 PM and they made her sit outside in the emergency room chairs (remember she cannot sit) until
12:15 AM before they let her in or anybody saw her because no beds were available. That's over 10 hours.
Today, she was
scheduled for surgery this morning to remove her cancerous tumor from her lower GI tract and take care of her pain and internal bleeding and other issues caused by that. Guess what happens? They tell us that it would be delayed an hour or two due to the recovery room being full. The surgical theatre is ready, but the recovery room is full. There are again, no beds. So my grandmother is sitting out there in pain again for hours. Our entire family ends up sitting and pacing for
8-9 hours just today waiting for her "scheduled" surgery which keeps getting delayed and delayed. They are still waiting there now and they tell us it's likely to be cancelled and rescheduled in 2-3 weeks.
My grandmother might not be able to wait 3 weeks, everybody cannot take time off work to sit in a hospital waiting room again (especially when you are bleeding internally)...JUST because they have no beds. Where the hell is all the money in this province in going that the biggest major hospital in Calgary is constantly out of beds and out of room for patients and they have to sit in chairs in the hall? The surgery could have gone ahead, they were simply out of room for the nth time. What the hell is going on here? That hospital was designed in and belongs in the 1950s!!!
This is election season, how do we express our frustrations to our politicians eager for votes? Oh wait, we can't, they are all comfy in AB so they are all campaigning for their buddies in Eastern Canada.
