MOHW Investigates Allegation of Neglect at NRH

A family claiming that they were denied care at the Northen Region Hospital shared a video on social media that went viral. In the video, the person behind the camera is heard saying that someone was suffering from heart pain and that care was being refused because other patients were being attended to. Under the impression that it was an emergency, the individual also said that the patient was dying because of the pain. The video prompted a release from the Ministry of Health and Wellness condemning any behavior that compromises patient care and safety. Today, Doctor Jorge Polanco was at the Northern Regional Hospital investigating the incident. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is investigating reports of patient neglect at the Northern Regional Hospital. One family alleges that a loved one was taken to the hospital for treatment after she began suffering from heart pain. The family member further asserted that healthcare providers at the facility refused to help. Other patients were reportedly pleading with the hospital staff to assist the woman. That did not work, and the woman decided to bring public attention to the incident. Here is the video that she made public.

 

Voice of: Family Member of Patient

“Goodnight everyone, we are in the Orange Hospital and this lady is dying from heart pain after an operation and they don’t want to attend to her. All the patients that are here are pleading for them to help the lady and they simply said they wont attend to her because they have other patients. What do you think of this? The lady is dying of heart pain.”

 

We spoke with Doctor Jorge Polanco, the Director of Hospital Services, who was at the Northern Regional Hospital today investigating the complaint. Doctor Polanco met with the hospital staff that was on duty at the time. Here is what he told us.

 

On the Phone: Dr. Jorge Polanco, Director of Hospital Services, MHW

“She had had a surgery during that day which was considered a minor surgery, minor in that it was even done with local anesthesia. So the surgery was completed and she went home. However around eight o’clock she returned with pain. In reality it was not an issue of the heart, it was from the surgery done earlier before and she was having pain. The issue that she was not attended to was really not as it was depicted in the video. That person was seen at eight-twenty during the night, before the video was taken. She was seen by a nurse and when the nurse reviewed the overall clinical situation, she was told to wait a few minutes and then they would return to her. At the same time, the doctors were dealing with two other emergencies in the trauma room and the nurses was also busy. At eight twenty-four the nurse came out and called for the patient to be evaluated, four minutes afterwards, not knowing the video had been taken. Even the doctors or the nurses knew that video was taken until many minutes afterwards. And, I am claiming this because that is the time when it was recorded in our health information system automatically records the time when the entry was made.”

 

According to Doctor Polanco, the patient was seen by a doctor and given two injections to alleviate her symptoms. He further stated that the doctor who performed the surgery on her requested an x-ray to be done the following day. He says that the x-ray returned normal.

 

On the Phone: Dr. Jorge Polanco

“People would post concerns regarding long waiting times at the hospital. We went in depth as to the long waiting times and there is some degree of truth in many cases, however when people would wait long, it is not because they would not have been assessed. Some of those patients who claim they waited long, they would be at the outpatient section, waiting one or two hours, they would then be seen by a medical officer who said you need to go to the emergency room. At that point they would go to the emergency room, and they would be seen but they would be adding all those hours they wait elsewhere. And vice versa it happens, when the outpatient section is flowing with patients they would go to the accident and emergency room, but if the issue is not an emergency, they would be told to wait a few minutes while they finish with the other emergency. So, these are situations that form the context of these complaints regarding waiting times. Also we looked into the communication approach, we empathized to our staff that everybody should be patient centered, everything should revolve around the patient, everything that is done and said it should have some impact on the patient and the patient should be aware as to why he or she would wait, as to why he or she is given a prescription and many times the communication skills are not the best. It is something we are cognizant of, and efforts have been done especially here at the NHR where exposure to training and communication skills has been given.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.