I think half the people that have gone through the Northern Health system with a health problem have a valid complaint about some part of their treatment..... and no one listens.

Isn;t it about time some of our regional 'leaders'; spoke out against the dismal medical services we are getting in Prince George? Where are the mayor and city council on this...what about the Regional District Board??

Two weeks for a broken jaw, a week for a broken leg....over a month for a simple ultrasound???? How long does it take to secure a family doctor?

We pay our taxes....shouldn't there at least be an expectation that we should be getting some reasonable medical services here??

Someone, is obviously there just for getting paid. If you are in that end of the industry, you have to do more than just go through the motions.

We are all going to die one day. But when your old and fragile, they should realize that they need immediate attention. Not two days later. Maybe if someone in that place cared, she may be alive today. Maybe the Lodges lack of caring took her will to live. Someone did not go fight for her needs.

The supervisor and the administration should be held 100% responsible and should be fully reprimanded. Either by holding themselves personally responsible for neglect or immediately removed from their professional designation.

PG - A great place to live... just don't get sick here.

Is it possible that the broken femur contributed to Ms. Smith's demise? I refer to the fact that the elderly sometimes do not survive a hip fracture for example. It is not the fall or the fracture that does them in, but the body's own systems reacting to the release of marrow (or???) into the blood stream. Correct me if I am in error here, but it has been explained to me that way. It must be a difficult job at times, the care of humans at the end of their lives, dealing with dementia and all, but it is so very important to attend to their every need, while treating them with respect and helping them preserve their dignity. Only those who care deeply about their charges should be working in a nursing home.
metalman.

SUE EM!! They are making you run around in circles, sue thier pants off and embarass them!

Were going see a lot more things degrade very shortly( in the service secter)I had a work related injury about a year ago and Worksafe BC used to phone about once per week to see how I was "doing",but I haven't heard a thing from them for the past six weeks.
I know you all think how is this related,but I think something is going on within this Government.

Just a thought!

Than poor woman and her family. OMG!!! What I have noticed about the hospital itself and its emergency room is that it is FILTHY!! I have seen people laying on stretchers for hours in the emergency, some throwing up or other body fluids happening. When they finally leave another person from the waiting room is put into that stretcher without the bedding being changed. It totally made me sick!! The blood pressure device reeking like BO. I hope I never have to take my daughter back there and that anyone I know stays healthy. The hospital in PG does not pratice a sterile enviroment. GROSS!!

We had a doctor tell us that it was better to take our sick child home and care for him as long as we could give him antibiotics and take his temputure evey hour. His reasoning was that the hospital was full of "bugs" that our son did not need to get.

That wait was inexcusable!

To paraphrase Confucious; "one must revere the elderly" Not sure if C. wrote that when he was young, or after he got old;)
(I plagarized Ying Ma's column for the quote)
metalman.

I worked at the Simon Fraser Lodge in 2006. I really needed to get out of the house and my stepmom worked there at the time so was perfect.
I could write a book about that place. Honestly could. The residents/patients are all beautiful people. Most of the care aids and very few nurses working there were great. There were many times that I thought they were understaffed running around or some were in the nurses station huddled having conversations while residents would be asking me for help. (I was a housekeeper and was not allowed to help, understandably) I at times didn't care though and would help some of them find their rooms or lend an ear if they had a story to tell even if that meant I didn't get home on time.(Lot's of those nights :) ) For the more serious kind of help I'd go to the nurses station and let them know what was going on. Some would say it's not their section and so and so would get there when they could. That upset me. Most of the care aids/nurses were excellent though and worked really hard and showed a lot of love.
I feel horrible for Sarah Smith and I can't even imagine the b.s. she went through. I'm glad to see her family was there for her as a lot of the residents there don't get any visitors. NONE.
The older wings also really need to be renovated. It's quite sad to see.

From what I can gather, it is BC Government Liberals cutbacks that are causing a lot of the problems.
The atmosphere at PGRegional Hospital is pretty poor for the workers there. The attitude of administration goes all the way down the line to the workers. Administration doesn't really care. It is all budget, budget, budget, cut, cut, cut and guess who gets shafted? The little guy, the ones who are in contact with the patients and then the patients pay the price.
I think we need to change the attitude of administration and politicians. How in heaven's name do we do that?
I guess Obama would suggest that the power is in the people. Maybe we aren't doing enough as citizens to say "this isn't good enough,change it".

Broken bones in an elderly person is dangerous. The loss of marrow means blood loss, low blood cells and the body has a difficult time producing more to replace the loss. I would really look into the exact cause of death. Carrying on for a week with a broken bone, especially an elderly person - it's just crazy!

well, here it is!! Thank you Mr. Gordon Campbell, we didn't really need all those extra medical workers did we??

But a 1 billion dollar loan for a condo project called Olympic Village, now theres something really important and desperately needed.

I think the healthcare system in PG is atrocious, and I am terrified of ever having to use the "services" offered. I have seen too many people wait in dire pain and suffering just to be lied to or patronized,for no apparent reason other than it doesn't seem to a priority.

If pain and suffering isn't a priority in a hospital, then there is something very wrong.

You are correct Lamb. We had to have a staff meeting with the owner of the contract to complain because they were thinking about taking our protective gloves away to save money. (the owner of the contract at the time didn't even care enough to attend the meeting)
Some of the residents there had Hep. C so you could imagine our concern.
Something does need to be done.
Here these nurses/care aids/housekeepers are putting their health at times on the line to take care of others who can't take care of themselves only to be treated badly by the ones running the place all the way up the line.
A place like this should never be understaffed and never, ever, ever should a resident be pushed aside for any reason.

So what do we do Heidi?
Form a group of people who speak for patients?
Telling each other is great but I think we need to go further and this seems like a good forum to get started.
Plus if Opinion 250 has Power of Attorney can't you get information under the Freedom of Information Act?
Also there was a doctor on CBC this morning that was upset about one of his patients being transferred out of the hospital to an elderly care home without the doctor's knowledge or permission;
Perhaps a group supporting the doctors would be a good start????
Just wanting to make things better.

to downnotout, I know exactly where your coming from..I was told the same thing. Too bad we are better off at home when we have such a thing as a regional hospital right here, also I might add that it's too bad we didn't have enough properly educated people to staff it. Most nurses up there are great, don't get me wrong, but when a person goes in there and gets a finger splint on backwards, what else is happening that were not aware of? That only causes an operation later that could have been prevented. If we can't hire more talented people than that, I think were in big trouble

Well I'm wondering if more people who worked under that roof would be willing to speak up? It appears when sharing of information over the internet is available for all to see and make some noise with is when things seem to get done??? Let's hope anyway!
Actually, one father vented to me one day while I was in cleaning his sons room about how little time they had for his son. He developed bad bed sores. He later took his son out of there and started to take care of him himself at home. There were times when I'd be working down the hall in a patients room and I could hear him yelling for a nurse that he had to go to the bathroom. Half hour later he was still yelling to go to bathroom. Then shortly after that I'd hear him say he went to the bathroom in his pants and that he wanted to be changed. It really was frustrating. I honestly really wanted to go help him myself. I don't blame his dad one bit for taking him out of there. It goes on and on.
I blame it all on being understaffed.

The problems are not new, years ago I watched a care worker pour milk down the front of a resident as he was not drinking his milk fast enough and she was too busy talking to another worker.

But I do agree things are worse, it is not lack of money for our health care, it is where the money is going. We have a very "top heavy" administration at all levels who make as much if not more than the doctors do.

kagee has hit the problem on the nose. Way too many people busy justifying their pay check and not doing anything of substance.

And then the people doing the work do whatever they want, because there really isn't any supervision.

Having said that I've almost always been impressed with the staff at the hospital, although there was one time when a doctor told me something really stupid...

you get what you pay for.

Gamblor, if only that were true when it comes to health care. I think that the system gets a lot of funding, but as kagee says, it is top heavy, very top heavy. There must be more people in administration than there are on the front lines. It sure seems that way anyway. When you look around and see how much office space the NHA is occupying around town, it is incredible. With all the bureaucracy and administration we have just in P.G. you'd think they were looking after all of Western Canada, instead of a portion of B.C. We owe our seniors a debt of care, and I do not believe that they are being well served. Having said that, how about some good news stories involving nursing homes, there must be some, anyone?
metalman.

I sure hope that Simon Fraser Lodge operator has a good insurance policy to cover negligence.

They are hired to look after the ones that can not look after themselves. I retract some of my earlier comments. Yes, they are a private company and the NHA has hired them to care for them. Is it about the lack of funding, or is it too much profit taking. It is the responsibility of the contractor to ensure that its employees are performing their job to fulfill the contract obligation. This being said, NHA has hired these contractors, because they have offered to care for these paitents for a set fee.

My thoughts is that the head of the Simon Fraser Lodge right now, is likely removed from the issues in his own building, and its employees are working to rule. Thus, there is little interest in its employees to care no more than to collect a paycheck.

I hope that this blog site will help the Sarah Smith family. We hope that people in charge will be accountable for their incompentence. Inclusive of nurse in charge, her supervisor, Manager of Operation and also the staff at the hospital, inclusive of administration.

I am sure that Sarah had contributed her life to our city and province in her younger days, of raising children and helping out in the community. She deserved better than this!

I hope you all quit guessing. What exactly is the point in speculating as to what is going on in Simon Fraser? Those of you suggesting that the staff are 'working to rule' or 'justifying their paycheck' etc. : do you actually know ANYTHING about the subject? I do. And you are wrong. The nurses i know who work there care very much for their charges. Usually more than the relatives do, if the number of visitors some of these folk get are any indication. Before you all resume your picking and critiquing maybe you ought to check your facts or , at the least try to imagine doing the job yourself for a while. I doubt you would begrudge yourself a bit of milk spilled on a patient in the course of a 12 hour day dealig with the most difficult of jobs.
Or, you can stick to the issue and get back to your oh so stressful jobs, typing, or talking on the phone or driving a truck.

Northern Health is a bureaucratic nightmare. My wife died in Jubilee Lodge and I was not told until I went to visit her. But they always called me when they wanted money or supplies. I can't believe that someone in the political scene has not demanded accountability.It is our tax money and our health.

Actually metalman I have a feel good story.
Surprise! Surprise!
There was this one man I'll call him R who suffered from Alzheimer's (I'm guessing, there may have been more to it???).
Well this one day I went into his room and he looked a little worried/anxious. So I said hi. He said that his family was coming to get him to take him to his granddaughters funeral. I said I was sorry. He says,"No wait her wedding!" Then he looked like he felt bad so I said, "Well just don't stand up and do any speeches and you'll be fine!" He laughed, I laughed. Then he said, "Come over here I want to show you something." So I go over to the window and he points outside to some birds outside his window. He says,"These birds come to my window everyday to visit me and talk with me." I looked again. They were fake birds hanging from the overhang or a tree I couldn't tell from where. I smiled and told him they were beautiful. I was so happy he shared that. He was so proud of those birds. One day he had a visitor come in and the visitor told R that the birds were fake. I could've slapped him! We all loved R.
I bet Caranmacil if you talk to your nurse friends they'd know who I was talking about. He was a sweetie pie.

R has since passed away. I think maybe at least a year ago???
It really is a decent place from that view of it. The problems I had with the place went higher up.

Thank you Heidi1555, I needed that!
I have some (limited) experience with nursing homes; a relative spent his last years in one and I was a visitor, plus I have worked in numerous homes as a contractor of building maintenance thus have made my own observations. Mainly, there are good and bad people everywhere you go. People who care and show it in their everyday actions, and those who are there for the pay cheque only.
metalman.

I was first introduced to this type of atmosphere in 1986 when I was 12. My grandmother stayed at one of these places. They put her in there because they thought she was starting to lose her mind. Turned out to be a brain tumor but by the time they discovered it it had grown too close to a certain area and there was nothing they could do.
I just remember how friendly all the residents were. Most of them smiling all the time and happy to see kids coming in.

When I worked at Simon Fraser I'd go in there on my days off with my kids to bring my stepmom a coffee while she worked. We'd walk the kids around and they got the same reaction we got as kids. Residents were happy to see the kids.

I sometimes regret quitting and wished I would've toughed it out longer. I miss the residents. The day I quit I had had enough from bosses and by the time I drove home I was shaking so bad. I called into work and let her have it on the phone about what I thought of everything. (Wasn't her it was people above her I was mad at.) I didnt' even go back to clean out my locker....lol..
Would sure be nice to see these places taken care of properly! These are the last few years of these peoples lives and they deserve better.

Oh and I knew what my paycheck would be before I started there. 8.00/hr. I left there red faced, sweaty, and exhausted each shift. A week after I quit I received with my last paycheck a letter saying they were boosting it up to around 14.00/hr. Something like that. I'm not sure why they thought to put that letter in???? Oh well I wasn't there because I had to work. I was there because I wanted to be.

:)