We all know that with our state-run, North Korean-style healthcare system, endless waits for treatment are common and seemingly inevitable even if it means suffering in pain and discomfort. But apparently it was a rule that we had to wait no matter what, even in a life or death emergency.
I did not know that.
Hospital refuses to treat man in parking lot
Last updated Jun 2 2005 09:02 AM PDT
CBC News
KELOWNA — A Kelowna man who transported an unconscious man to hospital couldn’t believe his ears when he was told to call 911 for help.Ralph Vogel had driven the victim to Kelowna General Hospital only to be greeted by staff that seemed unwilling to help.
Vogel says he ran into the hospital and told staff that there was a man either dying or dead in his motor home. When staff told him to call 911 and wait for an ambulance, he told them that the man was outside. He was still told to call 911.
The hospital now admits that staff made a mistake by refusing to treat the man in the parking lot.
The victim was a homeless man that Vogel and his wife allowed to sleep in their motor home. But then they couldn’t wake him up.
By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late. The man had already been dead for several hours.
This isn’t the first time hospital staff have refused to treat someone just outside their doors. Three years ago a woman who collapsed just metres from the emergency room doors also had to wait for an ambulance.
Alison Paine of the Interior Health Authority says policy changes have been made since that embarrassing incident. But she says the policy for helping someone in need of emergency care was not fulfilled in this case.
“It is not only KGH policy, but Interior Health policy, that if somebody is in need of emergency care in the parking lot, that we go out and help them,” Paine said. “But obviously something has gone wrong here and I need to go in and figure out exactly what has gone wrong.”
Some sort of a bureaucratic mix-up. Oh well.
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