Skip to playerSkip to main content
CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
A common complaint among patients in the Accident and Emergency is the amount of time spent waiting to see a doctor.


Well, Health Officials are explaining that these times can vary extensively under the system of triage for which there are five levels.


Alicia Boucher has more in this report.

Transcript
00:00Minister of Health Terence D L Singh outlines to the Joint Select Committee
00:04on Social Services that when it comes to the accident and emergency departments
00:09they do not operate on a first-come-first-served basis but rather a
00:13worst-come-first-served basis meaning the most critical cases will receive
00:19attention first. He says while people complain about spending long hours in
00:24the A&E it is sometimes the best place to be.
00:28Because what we have done we have increased and expanded the capacity for
00:34acute cases to be treated in an A&E where you have a multidisciplinary team
00:42among you. You can get your CT as a priority your x-ray as a priority.
00:48Once we put you on a ward it means you are stable enough to be there but very
00:55often the relative or the patient feels I come to an A&E and within five minutes
01:00I go to a ward. That is not good medicine.
01:03D L Singh states that A&Es across the country use the five-level Canadian
01:08triage and acuity scale or CTAS system. This has significant bearing on the
01:15wait time as Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roshan Parasram explains.
01:19Level one requires usually resuscitation or something like the like so you must
01:24be seen immediately. So if you're level one chances are you to come in by
01:28ambulance and you have to be seen immediately. Level two emergent which is
01:34usually has to be seen within a period of 15 minutes. Level three
01:39which is considered urgent must be seen in less than 30 minutes and that is
01:43benchmarked internationally. Level four less urgent which is less than 60
01:48minutes in terms of time to be seen and level five which I think is the
01:51category where you get most of the complaints is basically non-urgent cases
01:56usually the wait time which is expected for that is less than 120 minutes.
02:01Dr. Parasram says in the past the triage process was done by nurses only however
02:07now based on policy it has to be done by a nurse and a doctor or a doctor alone.
02:13He indicates that as of late last year a tool was developed as part of a
02:18monitoring and evaluation system. It was rolled out across the A&Es of all
02:23regional health authorities to examine the wait times against the CTAS system.
02:28Dr. Parasram is expecting preliminary data on performance within the first
02:33quarter of this year. Chief Executive Officer of the Southwest Regional Health
02:38Authority Dr. Brian Amo says patients at level one are seen immediately while
02:44at level five the wait time can be longer than the two hours under CTAS.
02:48What we find actually is on average one in three to one in four patients who
02:53come to the ED are in that level. As such DSW RHA has followed the pattern of the
02:58North Central Regional Health Authority and implemented a liaison clinic
03:03utilizing doctors from the health centers to treat those patients and
03:07sometimes referrals to the health centers are made. But level three
03:12patients he says are acute and usually have complex illness due to chronic
03:17diseases for example heart attack progressing stroke infections etc. Dr.
03:23Amo indicates that while the triage might be done within 15 minutes their
03:28time spent in the A&E can be a lot longer. To see the doctor may take you
03:32between two to four hours and then we have to do tests and investigations that
03:36may take you another two to four hours we talk in six to eight hours. Dr. Amo
03:40says those patients will eventually be admitted but because of the complexity
03:45of their illness they must be stabilized before they awarded. Alicia Boucher TV6
03:52News
Be the first to comment
Add your comment