The family of an 84-year-old man was horrified to discover the heart attack patient has been moved from his private room at the Rockyview General Hospital to a hallway last weekend.
DalYCe McVicar’s father arrived at the hospital Friday following cardiac arrest and was placed in a private room in a unit. When McVicar returned to the hospital to visit her father on Sunday, she discovered the 84-year-old, who does not want his identity released, no longer in his room.
McVicar found the senior parked on a bed in the hallway, without an oxygen tank or a nurse call button, and far from a washroom.
The patient’s daughter says the move placed unnecessary stress on her father during his recovery from a heart attack and she was horrified by the lack of sympathy from hospital staff.
“I get this whole impression of complacency,” said McVicar. “I have to expect that from time-to-time now, it’s the norm. No one seemed surprised or appalled.”
“I said ‘Do you want your parents in the hallway?’ and they’d go ‘No’.”
Officials with Alberta Health Services would not comment on the transfer of McVicar’s father but does admit lack of space is an ongoing issue in Alberta’s hospitals.
Glen Sumner, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Calgary, says stress avoidance is key during the recovery from a heart attack in order to prevent further damage to the heart. Sumner says moving a patient from a private room could be detrimental to the recovery.
“That’s not an ideal scenario,” said Sumner. “In general, it’s better to have some degree of peace and quiet and rest after a heart attack.”
Liberal MLA Dr. David Swann says the province’s health system requires significant change.
“Everything that I’ve heard is that we’re still overcapacity in most of the institutions,” said Swann. “It’s a real challenge for the staff as well as the patients and the families to get the appropriate care and attention they deserve.”
Swann expects the provincial health care situation to further deteriorate unless resources are added or reallocated.
“Until we get more long term care beds and take some of the pressure off the wards in the hospital, until we get more appropriate homecare services going into some of the lodges and residences and keeping people well, until we get better prevent and early prevention programs for seniors and other people at risk in the community, this is only going to get worse.”
CTV Calgary’s requests for comment from the provincial government have not garnered a reply.
With files from CTV's Jamie Mauracher
