'I've never felt so helpless in my entire life,' Moncton mother says after son's long wait for emergency care

FREDERICTON -

A New Brunswick mother is concerned about how long it took for her one-year-old son in respiratory distress to be triaged at the Moncton hospital.

"I was helpless," Danielle Doyle said of her experience at the Moncton hospital on Tuesday night. "I've never felt so helpless in my entire life. I was angry."

She says they waited 50 minutes to be triaged and her Liam was later diagnosed with double pneumonia.

"I'm not angry at the health-care workers," Doyle said. "They're doing as much as they can at the moment. I'm angry with our government and what's put in place for systems currently."

Liam is now doing well with treatment, but Doyle says it could have been worse and something needs to be done.

Horizon Health issued a statement Thursday morning saying that hospitals are at more than 85 per cent capacity.

In their latest numbers, one hospital was listed at 110 per cent.

"Before the pandemic, we were seeing hospitals well over 100 per cent capacity," said Anthony Knight, the CEO of the New Brunswick Medical Society. "That means there are more patients than there are health-care staff and hospital beds."

The leader of the opposition is concerned that the province was not prepared for the fourth wave of COVID-19.

"The occupancy of hospitals is almost at the max or in some cases over the maximum," said Roger Melanson. "We already have a shortage of resources and burn out in nursing, and that has not been addressed by the government of New Brunswick."

The medical society says the best thing New Brunswickers can do right now to help with hospital capacity is to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Physicians are very concerned about the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital capacity," said Knight. "There are serious strains that we're seeing take place throughout the system."

Horizon Health turned down requests for an interview Thursday.