'The first thing I noticed was chaos': Patient describes overcrowding, overworked staff at Fredericton hospital

A New Brunswick man is sharing his five-day experience as a patient at Fredericton’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital, describing what he calls a “complete collapse” of its emergency department this past week.

Tim Brooks is at home recovering from pneumonia and is speaking out, as hospital officials urge all non-emergency cases to stay away.

“The first thing I noticed was chaos… chaos and the looks on many of the nurse’s (faces),” says Brooks, in an interview with CTV, describing an ER waiting room on Dec. 27 filled with people extending to the hospital’s general entrance. “I could see the frustration and the sadness of the nurse’s faces, the custodian’s faces, as they were running around, trying to do whatever they could, looking after more people than they ever should have.”

Brooks says he was lucky to be admitted as a patient quickly, but only got as far as the emergency department’s nursing station where he sat for nearly 11 hours. Brooks says the waiting room and emergency department’s common areas were filled with people who clearly had respiratory illnesses, but no place to isolate.

On his third day as a patient, Brooks was moved to another floor in the hospital – a former TV lounge divided into two patient sections. Brooks says the room had no door, no washroom, no sink, no oxygen or suction equipment, along with no call bell.

“I was lucky my wife was there to support me, to help me,” says Brooks. “It was apparent that a lot of the patients were waiting to get into nursing homes.”

“There were patients that were obviously suffering from dementia wandering in and out of rooms.”

Brooks says custodians, nurses, and doctors did their best under the circumstances.

“They were short staffed,” says Brooks. “They were doing everything they could.”

Brooks says one elderly patient sat in their own urine for several hours because no staff members were available to change them.

“Knowing that person was sitting in that all day, without anybody being able to take time to deal with it was really, really sad,” says Brooks.

As Brooks was being discharged as a patient on New Years Eve, the Horizon Health Network issued a statement urging people to “consider options” before seeking help at any of its emergency departments. 

In a social media post on Dec. 28, Fredericton emergency department physician Dr. Yogi Sehgal warned residents of overcrowding at the Chalmers, in addition to a major backlog of ambulances waiting to be offloaded.

“Almost all of the region’s ambulances are in our back hallway, and we are currently at 360 per cent capacity right now, with patients having to be doubled up in rooms designed for one person,” said Sehgal, in the Dec. 28 post. 

Brooks first offered details of his Chalmers Hospital experience in a social media post, which has since been shared hundreds of times. 

“It appears that the DECH Hospital in Fredericton is fully engulfed, in flames, without a fire truck or firefighter on the scene,” said Brooks, in the post. “I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how far it had fallen.”

HORIZON AND VITALITÉ HOSPITALS REMAIN OVERCAPACITY

No officials from Horizon were made available for an interview on Tuesday.

In a statement, Horizon says all of its emergency departments were “extremely busy,” with an increase in staff unable to work due to illness.

Horizon’s statement says the health authority is “working to transfer, where possible, admitted patients not requiring medical care to an appropriate long-term care placement in order to help improve patient flow in our hospitals, including the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital.”

The Vitalité Health Network is also reporting significant overcrowding at Enfant-Jésus RHSJ Hospital in Caraquet, with an occupancy rate on Tuesday of 182 per cent.

Over the holidays, Vitalité issued advisories warning people to avoid the Caraquet and Campbellton hospitals due to overcrowding. Emergency department hours were also reduced at Stella-Maris-de-Kent Hospital, due to a lack of nurses. Vitalité says operations have since returned to normal at the hospitals in Campbellton and Stella-Maris-de-Kent.

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