Hospital crisis claims at least two lives

Last Updated: Monday, December 13, 1999 | 10:21 PM ET

CBC News

The head of emergency at Vancouver General Hospital says two patients have died there recently -- the victims of what Dr. Roy Purssell is calling a crisis in Lower Mainland emergency rooms, "There have been a number of deaths throughout the region associated with the long waits."

One of the patients died in a hallway at V.G.H., waiting to get into the emergency room for treatment.

The other patient did get into emergency, but it was too late.

Dr. Purssell says this weekend was one of the worst he's seen, as years of cutbacks finally come to a head

The situation is also critical at Vancouver's other big hospital - St. Paul's - where the bed shortage has forced long-term care patients into the emergency ward.

Patients on stretchers lined the emergency ward hallways at St Paul's over the weekend, and the situation is about to get worse.

Dr. Jeremy Etherington is St.Paul's Chief of Emergency Medicine.

He says a critical nursing shortage will force more beds to close tonight, forcing hospital staff to find creative ways to treat patients. "We have to wheel patients who are sick and admitted to hospital out of their beds, so we can put sick people into their beds to examine them, he says."We also take patients to interview rooms, to closets, to pretty well anywhere we can to try and examine them."

He says the Health Ministry has to find new ways to attract nurses and provide resources for home care and psychiatric patients.