Roberte Cunningham checked into Health Sciences North on Sept. 14 after experiencing severe abdominal pain, and when she arrived she was greeted with more than a few unpleasant surprises.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was joined by Sudbury NDP candidate Jamie West on Dec. 5 to hear Cunningham's troubling experience during her more than two week stay at the hospital.
Roberte was suffering from a kidney infection, and after an examination for kidney stones, doctors discovered that she had an L4-L5 fusion in her back that would require surgery. The weeks that followed left Cunningham feeling dehumanized and filled with questions as to how the province's health-care system had reached the state it is currently in.
"I was told that there was an overflow room, and I had never seen an overflow room, but I definitely had to be there and (was told) it would only be for a couple of days until another room becomes available," said Cunningham.
"When I was taken to this overflow space — you can't even call it a room because it wasn't a room — it was a shower/storage room and it was very crowded with equipment, it was unkempt, it was unclean, it was a storage room."
Stories like Cunningham's are not uncommon and have been highlighted by Nickel Belt MPP and NDP Health and Long-Term Care Critic France Gélinas, who say hallway medicine is becoming the new normal at hospitals like HSN and others around Ontario.
"Unfortunately, (Roberte) is not the first person to have experienced real problems in the hospitals in Ontario and we know that's the case in Sudbury, as well," said Horwath.
"It takes a lot of courage to be out there in the public about your health issues, but your story helps to highlight the details of what we've been concerned about for a long time in the hospital system. It's not just about numbers and statistics and budgets, it's about real people and the deteriorating quality of care in our hospitals."
Cunningham's room was without any bathroom facilities, a working shower or a telephone. While the physical discomforts were a lot to bear for Roberte, she said it was the sense of worry, confusion, and ultimately depression that were most unnerving.
"What really bothered me, there were no cardiac machines, no oxygen, and I've had chest pain before and I kept thinking, what if I have a heart attack or another stroke?" she said.
"There was no working telephone in the room, and some people might say 'why do you need a phone, you're in the hospital,' but I have family out of town. They needed to know that I was feeling OK, and they wanted to connect with me and provide emotional support."
Without bathroom facilities in her room and with limited mobility, Roberte resorted to sneaking into staff washrooms on a few occasions.
"I was in so much pain, I wasn't about to go bathroom hopping all over the hospital. I was told that I was to invade my neighbouring patient's room because it's not the patient's bathroom, it's the hospital's bathroom," said Cunningham.
"I disagree with that. OHIP pays money for that room, so the bathroom is included, and I don't think you need to be sharing it with people coming in there. I just would not do that to a stranger. What about their dignity? What about their privacy?"
Roberte would eventually be given a commode chair, something she said she was less than proud to receive.
"If anyone has had to use one of those, it's not fun at all. Here I was with this little chair in a dirty shower stall. It was very embarassing, it was dehumanizing, and I didn't like it at all," said Cunningham.
"In all of the hospital stays I've ever experienced, this has got to be the one that left me feeling depressed ... I was isolated, I was confused. Why did we get to this point? How did our health care get to this point where patients have to be experiencing these things?"
Horwath pointed to ongoing issues with overcrowding at HSN and other Ontario hospitals, citing statistics that were obtained through Freedom of Information requests that indicate occupancy rates have been more than 100 per cent on a near daily basis, reaching levels as high as 116 per cent occupancy on May 31.
"The safe occupancy rate for hospitals, which is an internationally recognized standard, is 85 per cent," said Horwath. "This hospital was over 100 per cent almost every single day from January through May for both acute care beds and mental health care beds."
The Ministry of Health responded to Horwath's comments, saying the NDP leader is sharing outdated stats and that occupancy rates, while still high, have been lower than the first six months of the year.
Occupancy numbers for HSN from June to September were 101 per cent, 102 per cent, 107 per cent and 106 per cent.
"Our hospitals are facing increasing demands as a result of our growing and aging population," said Health Minister Eric Hoskins in a Dec. 5 statement.
"In response, our government is investing an additional $140 million in the hospital, home and community sectors, to create over 2,000 new beds and spaces across the care continuum- equivalent to six medium-sized hospitals. This investment includes over 75 new beds and spaces in the North East LHIN."
Hoskins went on to state that over the past two years, the Ontario government has provided more than $1 billion in new funding to the hospital sector.
"At Health Sciences North, we’ve increased investment by over $14 million over the past two years, to a total annual investment of $279 million," said Hoskins.
"In this year’s budget, more than $30 million in new investments have been committed to hospitals across Northern Ontario."
The NDP leader said Kathleen Wynne is underfunding hospitals across the province by $300 million this year alone, after a decade of squeezing hospital budgets that followed years of cuts by Ontario Conservatives.
"We have a serious crisis that's been in the making for some time now by a Liberal government that's been shortchanging hospitals significantly," said Horwath. "Nearly 60 per cent of large community hospitals in this province are reporting occupancy rates that are over the safe standard. We have dangerous overcrowding, we have hallway medicine and that's the new norm here in Sudbury and in too many other places across Ontario."
Horwath said that the NDP is committed to hospital funding that keeps up with inflation, population growth and the needs of communities like Sudbury. The NDP has made a commitment that not a single frontline healthcare worker will be fired.
