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One woman is sharing how, after vomiting blood, she spent days in a Saskatoon hospital’s hallway before speaking with a doctor.
In a media event held by the Saskatchewan NDP on Wednesday, Anne Fournier recounted her week-long experience last month at Royal University Hospital (RUH).
According to Fournier, she ended up in RUH’s emergency room after experiencing “severe stomach pain” and she began “vomiting blood.”
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She required an IV of iron because her hemoglobin was so low and, after testing, it was discovered that Fournier’s small intestine was inflamed.
For three days, Fournier was kept in a hallway adjacent to the ER where she said she “was crammed in” with roughly 12 other patients. She said the reason for being in that particular hallway was because the ones inside the ER itself were full with beds.
According to Fournier, the hall was accessible to the public, had lights on at all hours and didn’t have a bathroom nearby, which impacted people’s privacy.
“Most people were unable to walk, I had to watch as two grown men had to urinate next to me with portable urinals in full view of us in the hallway,” she recounted.
“I experienced firsthand that there is no more dignity in our healthcare system.”
During her time in the hall, Fournier said there was only one nurse assigned to take care of those dozen beds, and they were rarely around – likely busy with other tasks, she surmised.
Another difficulty of being in the hall, Fournier said, was there were no call bells for patients who required immediate medical attention.
“When you’re actually on a ward, if your nurse is busy, at least there’s other nurses that will check on you if you ring your bell,” Fournier said. “We didn’t have that option.”
For those days spent in the hallway, she said she was unable to receive proper treatment.
Anne Fournier, standing with Carla Beck to the right, said she reached out to both the provincial government and the NDP about her experience, but only heard back from the latter. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
“Because I was in a hallway, they couldn’t give the medication I needed. They couldn’t monitor me like they were meant to. So, I felt utterly horrible,” Fournier said, adding that she “didn’t have one doctor” for her entire three days in the hallway.
“It wasn’t till I got to the medicine ward that I actually spoke to a doctor,” Fournier added.
It took being moved into the ward for Fournier to finally feel some relief from her symptoms.
She reached out to both the provincial government and the Saskatchewan NDP about her experience at RUH, but she said the opposition party was the only one to respond.
According to Fournier, while she was still in the hallway, she wrote an email to Saskatchewan’s Health Minister, Jeremy Cockrill. In response, she has only received an automated reply, she said.
When asked what she would want Cockrill to say to her, Fournier said, “it would just be nice to get a genuine response, like a passionate response,” as well as an apology.
She said it would also be beneficial for the the health minister to take a visit to RUH for a firsthand look.
“I would love nothing more than him or Scott Moe or any member of Parliament to spend a weekend in our ER and see what’s happening, see how bad it is, see how stressed the staff are,” she said.
More hospital beds coming to RUH
In an emailed response sent on behalf of Cockrill, the province wrote that the health minister received Fournier’s email and would be in touch.
While there was no specific mention of Cockrill visiting RUH in the near future, the email specified the health minister will regularly visit healthcare facilities across the province.
It also noted that “extended stays in hospital hallways are not the experience we want for any Saskatchewan patient.”
In addition to the future Saskatoon Urgent Care Centre, which is still under construction, the province said it is also working to add another 146 hospital beds in the city. Thirty-six of those will be in RUH, according to the email.
