'What’s missing is a sense of urgency': Widower reacts to Nova Scotia's emergency health-care plan

The husband of a Nova Scotia woman who died in a hospital after a lengthy wait in the emergency department says the province’s plan to address shortcomings in emergency health care is “too little too late.”

In a statement released Thursday evening, Günter Holthoff says he doesn’t feel what the government laid out in its plan addresses what his wife, Allison Holthoff, experienced.

“I believe that all political parties, in all levels of government, need to be working together to solve this crisis. If not, our health system will never improve and it will fail others, like it did Ali,” said Holthoff.

Allison arrived at the Cumberland Regional Health Centre in Amherst, N.S., before noon on New Year’s Eve. Her husband said she was in extreme pain, even screaming that she was dying at times, but she waited hours to see a doctor.

By the time she was taken into a room and had a CT scan -- which showed internal bleeding -- it was too late, said her husband.

Roughly 12 hours after she arrived at the hospital, the 37-year-old mother of three was dead.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, health officials announced extra resources to alleviate the pressure on strained emergency departments.

Officials outlined extra measures to improve ambulance response times, address long wait times and overcrowding in Nova Scotia’s ERs, and offer people more places to receive care.

But Holthoff says much of what government announced had already been in the works for months if not years “and will not have a real impact on our health system for the same amount of time.”

“What’s missing is a sense of urgency.”

He says the provincial and federal governments have the money and people needed to solve the problem faster.

“This is a true emergency, and although this problem may have grown steadily and quietly over the last number of years -- we do not have years to quietly address it.”

The Holthoffs are not the only Nova Scotia family to lose a loved one recently after a multi-hour wait in an emergency room.

Charlene Snow died suddenly at home on Dec. 30, 2022, after she waited seven hours in the ER at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, her daughter-in-law Katherine Snow told CTV News in a recent interview.

Snow says Charlene, 67, had jaw pain and flu-like symptoms. She was triaged, but eventually gave up after being told she likely wouldn’t see a doctor until the next morning.

Frustrated, Charlene returned home. Snow says her heart stopped less than an hour later.

“A sudden death like that is hard enough,” Snow told CTV News. “It is so shocking, and it happened in the house, so there was family there, but when you add an extra layer on top of that, that maybe it could have been prevented, it just really compounds the grief and takes it to another level.”

In Wednesday’s news conference, Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson said that while changes announced had already been in the works for some time, the recent deaths of the two women added to the "sense of urgency" for action.

“As much as we want change to happen overnight, many months of work have gone into what’s happening today,” said Thompson. "Based on recent events in emergency rooms in the province and under the premier's direction, we have accelerated these actions."

Nova Scotia Health says it is investigating the deaths of both Allison Holthoff and Charlene Snow.