A Nova Scotia woman is adding her voice to the chorus of concerns about hospital overcrowding in the Maritimes.
Patti Fraser-Fillion says her 71-year-old mother died in an emergency overflow room at the Dartmouth General Hospital.
Patricia Fraser wasn't well when she was admitted to hospital in March. She needed specialized care, but there wasn't a bed available, so she was put in a makeshift overflow room.
"I don't know how many nurses there are to tend to this room, but it's a very bleak, impersonal. Every bed is separated by a curtain and it's a little tiny area that you're in," says her daughter, Patti Fraser-Fillion.
Fraser-Fillion says her mother had lupus and was sick with pneumonia, but she says no one told her that her mother was gravely ill.
"She died by herself in that room with nobody there," says Fraser-Fillion.
No one from the Nova Scotia Health Authority was available for an interview Thursday.
The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians says hospitals have seen a 50 per cent reduction in bed capacity since the mid-1990s.
"This is what actually led to the crowding problem that's become entrenched in Canadian hospitals," says Dr. Alan Drummond of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.
The union that represents health-care workers in Nova Scotia is calling for action.
Jason MacLean recently presented 15 recommendations to the government to deal with hospital overcrowding.
"What we need to do is put money into the system to fix the system; it's broken," says MacLean.
Fraser-Fillion says she isn't sure money is the answer, but based on her mother's experience, something needs to be done.
"Not a pleasant way to go, if she was that close, she should have been in palliative care," says Fraser-Fillion.
The family has yet to share their concerns with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, but they are considering filing an official complaint.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl.
