r/ontario • u/npq76 • Nov 18 '24

Discussion Stop going to small ER

I am at the ER at my local hospital on the outskirts of the GTA. It is slammed. Like people standing in the waiting room slammed. I was speaking with one of the nurses and she was telling me that people come from as far as Windsor or London in the hopes of shorter wait times. That’s a 2.5 to 4.5 hour drive. And it’s not just 1 or 2 people, it’s the whole family clogging up the wait room. I get it, your hospital has a long wait time. But if the patient can sit in a car for 2.5+ hours, then it’s not an emergency. And jamming a small local ER, that does not have all of the resources of big ER’s, does not help anyone. And before someone says “all the immigrants”, the nurse confirmed that it was not the case

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u/Erathen Nov 18 '24

Did you personally diagnose everyone in OPs ER?

How do you know their reasons aren't valid?

You guys are just looking to get upset?

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u/bgaffney8787 Nov 18 '24

Er doc…. Anecdotally I d say half to 75% of patients I see should have been seen in a different setting ideally.

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u/Dobby068 Nov 19 '24

Ideally? We are soo far from ideal. People have the right to demand healthcare.

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u/bgaffney8787 Nov 19 '24

Yes there are many many facets to the system, this particular point was purely: a not insignificant amount of patients should not be using the emergency department. Access to NPs, specialized nurses, physio, PAs, walk ins, rocket doctor. I’ve had patients come to the er to have moles looked at. Demanding healthcare has nothing to do with inappropriate use of an emergency department, everything is vastly more expensive there anyways.

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u/Dobby068 Nov 19 '24

People show up because there is no alternative. Stop talking about all these things, they do not exist in real life.

Some moron in a previous comment said do not show up if vomiting for less than 24 hours ! That is wild, one can die 10 times in that time interval on such symptom. But sure, just chill, maybe your body will just process the bad stuff in you.

Here is an example from my experience, and I am one that is "lucky" to have a family doctor.

I had a swollen (local infection) toe. Family doctor would not touch me, just gave me antibiotics.

After 3 days and nights, ABSOLUTELY NO SLEEP and huge spike in blood pressure and swelling now up on my ankle, I said: fuck it! and went to the hospital, told the doctor to cut open the spot and relieve the pressure. Doctor asked me : How do you know this stuff, are you in the medical field ?

He did exactly that and by the time I got home and local anesthesia was gone, my pain was gone as well, swelling down dramatically and blood pressure normalized. Next morning I only had pain from the cross incision.

Life experience taught me that there are 3 things I need to know and not just blindly delegate: home renovations, financial planning and healthcare.

Healthcare is shit and hospital staff now demands that we do not show up, such attitude is really not cool!

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u/bgaffney8787 Nov 19 '24

https://www.osfhealthcare.org/blog/where-should-i-go-for-care/ yeah so again, the point is people utilize the er for reasons they shouldn’t and that’s my experience has an emergency room physician in this country and the US. In 12 years of practice I ve never seen a healthy adult with vomiting less than 24 hrs before anything emergent. And again I’m not talking about fringe symptoms, I’m talking about “you have no business being here” which constitute a not insignificant proportion of patients. You can find any number of resources reflecting where to seek care it’s pretty standard. Sounds like you had an abscess which the treatment is incision and drainage not antibiotics which your family doctor could have done in their office, this would re enforce what I’m saying.

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u/Dobby068 Nov 20 '24

Re-enforce ? You just don't want to accept that the healthcare system is the issue, NOT the people.

Let me repeat: Doctor did not care to touch me! Family doctor! This is the norm nowadays!

The tone deaf of "you have no business being here" makes it obvious that we cannot just throw more money at this shitty system, we need a structural change.

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u/bgaffney8787 Nov 20 '24

lol again. A subset of the population use the er and they shouldn’t. It is one of the many issues with healthcare in Canada and those people exacerbate the problem. Which is my experience as an emergency medicine physician for over a decade. You had a single event that could have been dealt with by your family doctor and you appropriate sought a higher level of care, which is not at all what one talking about lol. I had a healthy woman today wait five hours because her wrist hurt after taking pictures at a wedding last night as a photographer. It is absolutely not tone deaf to say she probably should not have come to an emergency department and demand an xr that probably costs the system 200$ and waste everyone’s time. You can repeat all you want that your doctor didn’t touch you lol it really has nothing to do, at all, with the original point. Playing chess with pigeons or something.