Which hospital ER is the most efficient in Victoria BC: the Royal Jubilee or Victoria General Hospital?

The new Royal Jubilee Hospital wing has made a bad situation worse for the emergency department of the capital city's only downtown hospital.

One additional bed. Millions of dollars later, an unbelievable number of volunteer hours, donations too many to mention, private ownership combined with public funding - a model for future hospitals ... and there's one more bed than before... and the line up in emergency is bigger ... and the wait is longer than ever.

Oh there's a whole new floor with beds still to be "opened" and they laugh when they mention that of course, because they need staff to be able to actually use the facility. It's apparently got all the equipment in there, it's a fully functional facility ready to spring into action (that is hear say from the staff) ... but they don't need any more beds in the downtown Victoria hospital.

Really?! So let's talk about laying on a stretcher in the Royal Jubilee emergency room hallway vomiting constantly, being fed morphine for the pain, and waiting to be seen by a Dr. for 15 hours, having a history of a previous bowel obstruction 6 months earlier and perforated bowel surgery removing 18 inches of infected colon 9 moths earlier. The first Dr's consultation and ordering of the morphine happened within the first 2 hours (it certainly kept me quite for the first 12 hours anyway). The CT scan had been done within the first 3 hours. Then I lay there, IV in my arm and a nurse giving me a shot of morphine whenever I was in enough pain that I felt bad enough to disturb them to ask for more.

I saw a lot happen in that emergency department as I lay there through an entire night and day shift. I saw patients come and go, waiting for rooms or waiting for it to be there turn. I watched patients get taken in for treatment first, get passed by once, twice three times until they heard "you're next". I watched as a family came in droves to pay their last respects to an Elder of their community who was lucky enough to get a glass room with a curtain big enough to allow 8 to 10 of them squeeze in if the nurses and Dr's didn't need to enter; he got a room after about 10 hours and heard he died later that day, may he rest in peace. I watched as others threw up their insides too, as they sat in their wheelchairs, some also attached to long dangling strings that were supposed to help it stop. Patients interrupting and arguing with nurses working at the nurses station: the heart and communication center of the floor, the place where meds are counted, patient order is determined, doctors give their orders and where the flow is centered from; not understanding the definition of an emergency.

Then, at the 15 hour mark a nurse, God bless nurses - well most of them anyway, walked by me. She saw that I was teary put her hand on my shoulder and said "have you seen a Dr. yet?" I shook my head and said "not since last night at 4am". She said "you've been here since early last night, let me see what's going on." Within 15 minutes a Dr came over talked to me, told me I had another perforation, that they needed to admit and watch me overnight and would decide about surgery in the morning. I was taken to a room within the hour and stayed for a week.

That was in December, 2010, just before the new wing was opened. Fast forward to October, 2011, same emergency department, new wing open, my 8th Emergency admission in 18 months; 3rd time at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, I had been taken 5 times to Victoria General Hospital.

Same conditions sent me there - and too serious to try to get to the Victoria General Hospital - again. This time I saw the Dr. and had the scan, IV hookup with a new addition - a NG tube would have to be put down my nose to help give the obstruction relief, so I was guaranteed a curtained wall spot! (at one point they wanted to put into the hall but couldn't because I was attached to the suction on the wall). I was admitted first thing in the morning but would need to wait for a bed. 22 hours after I had arrived, 16 hours after I had been admitted, I asked why everyone else was getting a bed and not me "I feel like I'm too young to get a bed, cause I know I'm sick enough - if they have to operate in the morning will I have a bed to come back to?".

Within 30 minutes she came back and told me she had good and bad news. "you're getting a bed, but it's at VGH - you're Dr has transferred your case to the Dr there".

I was taken by ambulance within the hour to the Victoria General Hospital, to the 7th floor and nurses who I was all too familiar with and the place where I felt safest. The emergency department I should have gone to in the first place, where not only is the care outstanding but the system is made to get people into rooms, if that is what they need, quickly. You see I've been to this emergency department before - 5 times in the last year when I had time to get here, to this hospital, I came.

As I was wheeled through the old familiar hallways to my room on the 7th floor I was quickly taken aback, almost every room on the floor had at least one empty bed and many had more. I had just come from a hospital where there were people lined up for beds for hours, being told none were available and no one was being transferred there except for a lucky few. Why were these beds empty?

Something in the system is broken. One empty hospital and one overflowing. Why were more patients not being redirected or sent by ambulance to Victoria General? This is a question that needs to be addressed by VIHA. There is an obvious imbalance in the system that is being ignored or overlooked and with correction could help restore balance. This is a simple communication fix and it's is unbelievable that it has been allowed to go on as it has.

A nurse at Victoria General Hospital told me that they are being called a "substandard facility" because they are not brand new. The facility is top of the line as is the care provided and the staff at every level outstanding. Many of the staff work at both hospitals by the way.

VGH's Emergency Department can be called anything but substandard. They give the type of care you expect when you are in the situation that sends you there. They are quick, effective, approachable, professional and have old school ethics and standards - and that's what I want.

I strongly suggest that if you need acute care in Victoria British Columbia, drive the extra 10 minutes, it will save you hours in emergency.

copyright © eye say 2011