Essential caregivers, family members tending to loved ones, intend to gather tomorrow morning at the North Bay Hospital for what they are calling a "March for Dignity."
Calling themselves the North Bay Regional Health Centre Primary Caregivers, they are family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and community members who provide critical and often ongoing personal, social, psychological, and physical support, assistance, and care to patients in the hospital.
See: 'Heartbreaking' as wife turned away from caring for dementia-patient husband
And: Primary caregivers frustrated by hospital roadblocks
They are frustrated by the reception they get at the local hospital that has promised them ease of access.
"I have knowledge that the policy is still not being followed. Essential caregivers are still made to choose a time and are limited to a two-hour visit," group spokeswoman Diane Demers told BayToday. "Caregivers are still being treated as visitors and allowed limited access to the hospital."
Demers gives a couple of examples.
She says a caregiver was not allowed to visit her father who had cognitive impairment who was sundowning. (a symptom of Alzheimer's disease) He called her crying one night begging her to come and see him. She was denied access because she had been in already once that day. Her father died two days later.
In another incident, Demers says a woman who has dementia was brought to the emergency department and the caregiver was not allowed in with her. The patient did not speak or understand English very well. The hospital discharged her after putting her wrist in a cast.
"The caregiver tried to bring her home but she was in severe pain and it took four nurses to help get her out of the car. This woman was being sent home with a broken knee, ankle, and toes. This woman could not communicate her pain so the doctor just focused on the broken wrist, all because the caregiver was not allowed in. This is barbaric and unacceptable."
Demers says the issues are ongoing and management at the hospital is not following its own policy which is, up to one person may remain with an inpatient or outpatient at all times and is NOT restricted to the two-hour time limit if they are:
- support for a vulnerable patient (under the age of 18, cognitive impairment, significant developmental and/or intellectual disability, unable to effectively communicate)
- support for a patient experiencing a life-altering event (end of life, critically ill, trauma)
In an emailed reply to Demers' concerns, Paul Heinrich, president of North Bay Regional Health Centre wrote, “As you can appreciate, we have had to adapt to constantly changing directives and challenges. We have hired many new staff and I am aware that our policy has not always been appropriately interpreted and carried out – there are a number of examples where a caregiver has been inappropriately restricted and we have done our best to correct the error. I have personally spent time observing the screening entrance and have witnessed first - hand some of the challenges.”
Demers questions whether new staff are being given adequate training.
"How can this keep happening? We are not a third world country. Other hospitals, have adapted to the changes and have made access a priority…..like Sudbury," Demers wrote, asking for MPP Vic Fedeli to help.
"As our MPP I would expect help in this situation. You should be ashamed Mr. Fedeli that you have not made this issue a priority and worked with the hospital to make necessary changes.
"Seniors, the sick and vulnerable need their dignity back. We are the backbone of this community and we deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, not shunned and dismissed. Not everyone knows their rights and I want to change this. Our human rights have been taken away and we want them back.
"I know COVID has brought us a lot of challenges but it is up to our leaders to make sure changes do not infringe on our rights and our dignity.," adds Demers.
The March for Dignity takes place at 8:30 until 11:30 tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at the hospital's College Drive entrance.
