‘It’s like winning the lottery to get one’: Policy reversed on Cape … – Saltwire

NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. When Adam Porter took his two-and-a-half-year-old son Dax, who has cerebral palsy, to the Northside Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) in North Sydney with a fever of 39.6 C in late February, they had to line up outside in the freezing cold to wait for a chance at an appointment.

The Cape Breton Post started digging into this story a few days ago and inquired about the policy of making people wait outside with Nova Scotia Health Monday. By Tuesday, the policy was reversed.

"Since the UTC opened, patients have been asked to arrive no sooner than 30 minutes prior to the centre opening and 15 minutes before a scheduled appointment," spokesman Brendan Elliott said in an email late Tuesday.

"However, upon review, it has been decided patients can now arrive and wait inside the urgent treatment centre waiting area when the on-site screener for the hospital starts their shift; (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 a.m., and Saturday at 8 a.m.) It is important to note no clinical staff will be available to provide care or assistance until the centre opens for the day."

Northside-Westmount MLA Fred Tilley got a call Tuesday afternoon that the policy was being changed and then told the Cape Breton Post that government was trying to beat the story.

Elliott said there is a fixed number of appointments available each day at the urgent treatment centre and these appointments are generally booked within 1.5 hours of opening.

"Nova Scotia Health acknowledges there is significant demand and challenges in getting an appointment," Elliott said.

For more information on other options, he said people should visit "Where to go for Care Eastern Zone" and noted the urgent treatment centre is not an emergency department (if you need immediate emergency medical attention, please dial 911 or proceed to your nearest emergency department).

In late April, Diane Ferneyhough of Little Bras dOr encountered the same policy while too sick and weak to stand outside, she argued with security she should be allowed to sit in the empty waiting room.

He goes. Yes, you can start lining up there outside' she said of the visit. It was freezing out. I was fearful for my life. I was crying and begging. I started getting upset. I said, Hold on a second. I feel like I'm dying. It is cold out there. He goes, Go to your car."

But she said with a limited number of appointments up for grabs, people risk missing out if they wait in their car.

Ferneyhough is waiting on bowel surgery and as of Tuesday had been admitted to Northside as an inpatient after making the two-hour trek to Inverness because she didnt want to deal with urgent care again due to anxiety.

And Its often easier for Porter and Daxs mother, Robyn Forest, to call the IWK and drive the roughly five hours to Halifax than deal with the Cape Breton hospitals.

The Northside Urgent Treatment Centre, according to Nova Scotia Healths website, provides care for those with unexpected, but non-life-threatening health concerns with appointments offered within one to two days.

The urgent care centre is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Appointments are booked by calling 902-794-8966 or in person.

The trouble is people say they cant always get through on the phone lines so they show up an hour or more before opening time to try to snare one of the available appointments. If they wait in their car in the parking lot uphill from the entrance they fear they might not get a timely appointment or any spot at all, depending on the demands of the day.

Because of the distance from the car park to the door, it becomes a sprint of the fittest to reach the door when the appointments are handed out.

While its for less urgent care, people like Porter and Ferneyhough have chosen to go there rather than face potentially several hours or more of wait at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital emergency room.

Dax Porter has had more than 100 medical appointments in his short life. Hes been airlifted to Halifax four times.

His parents have a nearly two-foot-long string of beads representing all the procedures, surgeries and other medical appointments he has endured so far.

Their Sydney Mines living room is filled with medical gear and supplies. He watches his favourite shows like "Sesame Street" from his wheelchair.

Porter said he called the previous day of that February visit and was told to come the next morning and register at Northside.

That morning, they were told to wait outside as the facility wasnt yet open though staff were there, including security.

He has a fever of 39.6 C and he's in a wheelchair, Porter said.

They were given a blanket and eventually noticed and taken out of the line. But it had been roughly a half hour.

But in our case, like that day that we were up there, it was -15 degrees, he said.

They said, You know, as soon as you see people starting to line up, go get in the lineup'.. it was like, OK, I guess we have to go get in this line in order to get you checked out.'

My pet peeve with it all was you have a perfectly good waiting room right there (inside). It's all plexiglass.

Or, failing to allow people to sit inside, he said there could be a number machine outside that allows people to take their number and return to their warm car until it opens.

When Porter made a formal complaint, he said he felt like he got a politicians answer, which was that people arent allowed in because they might rifle through patients' rooms.

I mean, the patients are on different floors altogether, Porter said.

It really, really boggles my mind the entire thing.

He said the policy comes off like a power trip.

Fevers in the past have led Dax to have seizures and that was the fear that day.

I told (the manager) You're gonna have somebody die in that lineup if this is what you're going to continue doing.

They saw a doctor and got antibiotics but about a week after, Dax ended up admitted to the IWK with a respiratory infection.

He said the many hours of wait time at the regional hospital forces them often to just go to the IWK, despite the distance.

We're nervous just to take him to Cape Breton Regional because, well, he can't sit out in the waiting room with everybody else because hes (immuno) compromised. we can't wait, you know, 10 and 12 hours to be seen. (At the IWK) they get you in a room right away

Ferneyhough, a licensed practical nurse who is off work from Northside due to her health conditions, has episodes of non-stop vomiting and severe pain due to her abdominal condition.

Shes been sick for a year and lost 77 pounds.

On April 25, she had an episode and she and her husband, Shelly, were going to go to Inverness rather than face several hours at the regional but Shelly suggested the urgent care in North Sydney.

Thats when she encountered the security guard.

I said, Well, I'm not leaving. He said, Well, you have to leave. You can't wait in here, that kind of tone. And I said, Well, I'm going to tell you something: I feel like I'm dying and I'm not saying that to make it more than what it is, Ferneyhough said.

There was about 30 empty seats there. ... Why does a security guard get to tell me when I can and can't go into my hospital that I pay taxes for? And my taxes are all paid provincial, federal and municipal up to date. And the security guard is telling me to leave the hospital when I'm fearful for my life.

Why are sick people elderly with walkers, people with kids lined up in the cold mornings when there's 30 seats here? Give the people a number as they walk in. Oh, problem solved.

"Making people wait outside is bulls--t, Shelly said.

Especially people who are too weak.

She lost that much weight I thought she was gone, he said of his wifes condition.

The whole notion of banning people from the waiting room until it officially opens is inhumane, said Tilley, especially when the seats inside are sectioned off with plexiglass and theres ample room with the limited number of appointments on any given day.

A number machine outside the door would also solve the problem, he suggested, adding the hospital could even put numbers on the seat to match the appointment numbers.

He acknowledged that people are just trying to get access to a doctor in a timely manner.

The doctor (waiting list) is continuing to grow. People are becoming desperate, Tilley said.

CONTACT

On Tuesday morning, one man said he waited a half hour out in the rain for his chance at an appointment. He had been trying to phone Monday but didnt have any luck, he said.

"The weather is so cold and damp, especially when you are up in age, said the man, who didn't want to give his name.

Another man who was at the hospital for another appointment said hed been at urgent care two weeks ago and waited outside for an hour, as hed arrived to try to be first in line. That time, he said an elderly man in a wheelchair was taken out of the line and brought inside.

As for phoning, he said he heard thats useless.

Health care, he said, is in a hard spot currently and having something like urgent care is better than nothing.

I dont know how to fix it, he said.

Tilley expressed his concerns to Nova Scotia Health about the complaints he received about people having to wait outside at Northside.

In response, in early March, Acute Health Services-Eastern Zone shared with him a public service announcement around the centres hours of operation.

In response to that email, Tilley said the advice is impractical.

The biggest issue is that people have to arrive early to get in line for an appointment or they dont get one. Reports of calling many, many times and not able to get through. They understand there are no clinicians but certainly, there are security that can allow the elderly and most vulnerable inside spaced appropriately to wait to try for an appointment. It's like winning the lottery to get one, Tilley said to Nova Scotia Health.

- Barb Sweet is a multimedia journalist with the Cape Breton Post. Follow her on Twitter @BarbSweetTweets.

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