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Dustin Rioux’s 83-year-old grandmother was taken by ambulance to a Halifax hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

Despite having dementia and suffering pains, Rioux says she still waited 42 hours for a hospital bed.

“They were trying to get her into the family room but was told that they couldn’t because there’s another family in there with EHS with a terminal ill, dying patient and there’s no room for them,” he said. “It’s critical.” Tweet This

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Hospital says they have difficulty discharging patients, freeing up beds

Rioux says his grandmother’s situation has improved but that others are still suffering at the hospital.

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“I really wish that either government or McNeil, the health care minister, would take the time out of their day to go down there at emergency at QE2 and look at what’s going on,” he said.

“People are on the floor sleeping, waiting 20-plus hours to be seen. That’s what they’re being told. Twenty hours is what they have to wait.”

Dr. Mark Taylor with the Nova Scotia Health Authority says no one should be waiting that long in the emergency department. The problem is freeing up beds in the hospital.

“In order to move a patient from the emergency department to an in-patient bed, we need the person that was in the bed out of the hospital, and sometimes have difficulty discharging patients in a timely way,” Taylor said.

Taylor said having people wait for a bed in the emergency department is not unique to one hospital, or even to Nova Scotia. “It happens everywhere I’ve ever worked,” he said.

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‘Somebody will die in triage’: NSGEU says it takes 90 mins for triage at Halifax Infirmary

According to the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU), the state of health care in the province is getting worse, not better.

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“Today, we received reports from our members at the Emergency Department at the HI (Halifax Infirmary) that it’s the worst it’s been in 20 years,” said Jason MacLean, NSGEU president. Through a freedom of information request, the union says it discovered there were 67 bed closures at the Halifax Infirmary emergency department alone between Oct. 1 and Nov. 29, 2017.

MacLean says there are not enough beds for Nova Scotians and also not enough staff.

“It’s up to an hour-and-a-half’s wait time for triage in the emergency department,” MacLean said. “Somebody will die in triage.” Tweet This

“My members are beside themselves,” he said. “The whole health care system is in shambles right now and McNeil needs to recognize it.”

Taylor said 90 minutes to be triaged is not acceptable and that the delay was likely due to volume. “Patients who are not seen rapidly can deteriorate rapidly depending on the nature of the condition they have.”

“Seeing patients in triage should happen very quickly, … within a matter of minutes.”

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Some patients placed in other parts of hospital, transferred

Taylor said the hospital is always looking for ways to improve. Because of overcrowding, some patients at the Halifax Infirmary were moved to different areas of the hospital.

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As of Thursday afternoon, Taylor said there were nine people waiting for a bed at the Halifax Infirmary.

“Nine is fairly low compared to what it usually is,” Taylor said. “In my opinion, no one should be waiting. As soon as they’re ready to be admitted, they should go.”

Despite overcrowding, Taylor said calling a Code Census isn’t useful and that they don’t do it often.

He said staff continue to put patients in more places than they used to and have even transferred some patients to other sites.

“In some circumstances, we don’t like to do this, but we have units in the hospital where we have patients in hallways, which is not an optimal solution. We try to avoid that as much as possible, but it might be better for a patient to be in a hallway in a hospital unit than in the ED (emergency department), which is often the other choice.”

Taylor said that the lack of family doctors in the province is “undoubtedly a contributing factor.” He said patients who do have family doctors are encouraged to see them before coming to an emergency department.

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McNeil won’t say health care system in crisis

Asked about the state of health care, McNeil would not call it a crisis.

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“There are challenges in part of the system, there’s no question,” he said Thursday following a cabinet meeting in Halifax.

“One of our challenges has been the way new health care providers want to operate, which is much different than the people they’re replacing. No longer do we see that people want to continue to work at the case load that their predecessors were.”

As for N.S. NDP Leader Gary Burrill, he sees the situation in a different light.

“We know that our emergency rooms across the province are plugged solid and the primary reason for this is that people, of course, don’t have a doctor,” Burrill said.

NSGEU launches campaign against McNeil

This week, the NSGEU launched a new website and campaign called Spell It Out.

MacLean said it’s an opportunity for Nova Scotians to let the McNeil government know there’s a problem with the health care system before the legislature resumes.

“What we need is for McNeil to do some action,” MacLean said. “He spent the last four years dismantling health care. He needs to help put it together.” Tweet This

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