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Canadians are spending more time waiting in emergency departments today than in any other year on record, according to data published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
It’s a fact that Laura MacMillan knows all too well.
Her son Harris MacMillan has developed croup about a dozen times since his first birthday.
“It’s been a long year,” MacMillan said Tuesday, noting every time he developed symptoms, which included a barking cough and often difficulty breathing, it was a mad rush to the hospital to rush and wait. .
“If it’s a mild case of croup, and he’s coughing but just needs steroids, then we wait and wait and wait. And finally we get them,” she said.
Depending on the severity of her two-year-old’s condition, MacMillan said wait times to see a doctor can be eight to 10 hours.
“We were waiting in the ER for hours, she was throwing up on the stroller and she was throwing up on me. He couldn’t breathe,” MacMillan said. “But what are you going to do? You are surrounded by people who are also sick and need care. And you just have to let it out.”
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), 2021 will be the worst year on record for emergency room wait times across the country.
The data indicates that nine out of 10 visits for admitted patients were completed within 41 hours, up slightly from the 33.5 hours it took to complete a cycle of care in 2020.
“The volume of visits has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels,” said Tanya Khan, manager of clinical administrative databases for CIHI.
Windsor Regional Hospital leads the province for wait times even though the hospital only received funding from the province for an additional 18 beds.
Khan said many factors are contributing, including the fact that people are sicker. He said the well-reported shortages in staff and bed capacity persist, but pointed to other factors occurring outside the hospital.
“Access to primary care, access to home care, long-term care, even things like access to virtual care,” Khan said. “All affect length of stay and volume of visits.”
After repeated trips to the hospital over the past year and multiple rounds of steroids, Harris finally underwent surgery in London.
But last week, it was cancelled. MacMillan said the reason given was the lack of space for bed recovery.
MacMillan didn’t direct her anger at the doctors and nurses trying to help her sick son, instead she wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford.
“We need you to do better. Like we’re trying to raise our children and we’re trying to keep them healthy,” he said. “Our hands are tied. We need a better system. We need access to care and we’re not getting it.”
MacMillan got some good news late Tuesday.
Harris’ surgery in London has now been rebooked and he’s praying the hospitals don’t fill up before then.
“They’re overwhelmed and our kids are suffering,” MacMillan said. “I don’t know what the answer is.”
“All I know is we need help.”
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