My remarks, and the correction which is necessary at the Cité-de-la-Santé of Laval, would be addressed rather to the director general of this institution than to you, Mr. Minister of Health. But I also thought that someone in your department could direct my intervention to the right person.
My husband was hospitalized at Cité-de-la-Santé from November 26 to December 9. He was very well cared for by competent and dedicated specialists and by nursing staff who did everything possible to meet the needs of the patients.
But I deplore the fact that out of 14 days, my husband was lying on a stretcher in a corridor for seven days and six nights, or half of his stay. Aged 88 years and 9 months, my husband has suffered from back pain caused by stenoses for many years and a stretcher was in no way appropriate for his situation. Arriving at the hospital by ambulance on a Sunday afternoon, it was no surprise that he spent the first night on a stretcher in the corridor, because the evaluation rooms were crowded. On Monday afternoon, he was sent “upstairs” and I was told that he had reached number 341-7.
Room 341 is a room that can accommodate six patients; if you have number seven, you are the lucky one on a stretcher installed in the small corridor between rooms 339 and 340 and you are just behind the nurses’ station. You have the neon lights on until 9 p.m., very heavy traffic at certain times of the day, and constant noise. Little space for the caregiver, that’s obvious. My husband stayed there from Monday noon to Wednesday around 2 p.m. For privacy and dignity, we’ll come back.
He was transferred to 337-1 where he remained for exactly one week. The following Wednesday, while I went to dinner, the administrative assistant told him that his bed was needed, put him on a stretcher and sent him to 341-8. 341-7 was behind a nurses’ station, 341-8 behind the next nurses’ station, between rooms 329 and 330. When a person is sick, they don’t object. My husband accepted this move without opposition.
After returning from dinner, I went to the administrative assistant and asked her why my husband was in the hallway again. She told me that it was the hospital’s policy, namely: “when a patient is stabilized and another patient arrives from the emergency room, we move the patient who is stabilized to prioritize the one who comes of urgency”. I told this lady that I would write to the general director of the hospital, because this policy must be modified to exempt elderly patients from these movements which send them to a corridor.
In my opinion, it is mistreatment of an elderly person to expose them to the full view of all employees and visitors moving in a corridor when you have to use a chair. ease with a single curtain to isolate yourself a little. Where is the respect for the elderly person who has paid taxes all their life and who continues to pay more?
Why move a man who is approaching 90 years old, when we could have moved someone else, like some patients who left their rooms several times a day to go smoke? I was told that as soon as a room became available, my husband would be put in there. This did not happen and he remained at 341-8 from Wednesday, December 6 until Saturday afternoon, December 9, when he was discharged.
What I am asking you, Mr. Minister, is that someone from your ministry work with the management of the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital to modify this policy, if it really exists, so that elderly patients do not experience what my husband experienced for seven days. A stretcher in the hallway should only be used for a few hours, while waiting for a room, it cannot replace missing rooms.
You will tell me that this is another problem, but it is real: the Cité-de-la-Santé is no longer enough to meet all the hospitalization needs. When will there be a second hospital with individual rooms like at the CHUM?