‘A horrible experience’: Patients spend days on overflowing stretchers at Corner Brook Hospital

After spending six days on a hospital stretcher, Jamie Miller said he hopes he never has to be admitted to Western Memorial Regional Hospital in Corner Brook again.

“It felt humiliating,” said Miller, who was admitted last month with diverticulitis — a disease that causes severe abdominal pain.

“It was a very horrible experience.”

He spent six days on a stretcher in a small room with no windows. She said she hardly slept. She has to get out of the hospital pod with her IV pole in place to use the bathroom, Miller said.

“I was in so much pain,” she said. “(Sometimes I thought I was going to pass out and I said, ‘Okay, no one will know I’m here.'”

She was not even able to take a bath, and said she was only offered a bath on the fifth day after asking several times.

And by the sixth day, Miller said she was so tired and in so much pain that she started crying — and then offered her a hospital bed where she spent three days.

He said, “Thinking about (it) still bothers me. Like it wasn’t right.”

‘Absolutely no privacy’

Leanne Renouf said she had a similar experience when she spent three days on a stretcher in the same hospital.

Renouf said she was escorted out of the room where she spent her first night.

“Basically there’s a little corner in the hallway where they keep towels and blankets, and I was laid out on a stretcher there,” she said. “People were coming and going and taking towels. I had no privacy at all.”

That evening, she said she went into “overdrive”.

“I thought I was getting a bed. I was once again put on a stretcher, basically in a room that basically looked like a small closet,” she said.

It was difficult to sleep, she said, because the room had automatic lights that would turn on when you moved.

He also said a shower was never offered.

“I was completely exhausted,” she said. “I used a bowl of water to wash myself.”

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services previously acknowledged the overflow issue at the new hospital in Corner Brook.

While it originally opened in June 2024 with 164 beds, an additional 30 long-term care beds and 15 transitional care beds were opened last fall To solve the overflow problem.

In a statement to CBC News, NLHS spokesperson Janet O’Keefe said the health authority recognizes that “seeking care outside of a traditional room can be distressing.”

He said NLHS works to reduce these situations as much as possible, but sometimes health care facilities may experience high patient numbers, such as during flu season.

“As a result, designated overflow areas are being used to safely care for patients when regular hospital beds are full,” they wrote.

O’Keefe said patients are evaluated to confirm whether overflow areas can safely meet their care needs.

“Should those needs change, an alternate bed is assigned,” she wrote.

‘Hallway medicine’

Dr. Scott Wilson, an emergency room physician at St. John’s and a member of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, said placing patients on stretchers in overflow areas can hinder care, and should not happen.

“We call it hallway medicine,” he said.

“[There’s]no space, no bathroom, no privacy, lights on all the time, night and day having no meaning for your circadian clock.”

The province’s nurses union also warned about the rising number of patients in December At least 50 nurses were mandated Working overtime.

Yvette Coffey, president of the Registered Nurses Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the overcrowding of patients being held in physiotherapy rooms, closet spaces and corridors has raised concerns about working conditions.

In a statement sent to CBC News, Coffey said he is once again concerned about reports of overcrowding.

“No one should have to spend days on a stretcher without privacy or reasonable access to basic necessities like a bathroom or shower,” they wrote. “It affects a person’s dignity and overall well-being.”

‘system failure’

Wilson said the problem was caused by a “system failure.”

He said patients are forced to stay on emergency room stretchers because acute care beds are blocked by patients who can’t go because of a lack of community support or long-term care.

He said that this problem puts the patient in greater danger.

“The more time you spend in the emergency room as an inpatient, the more likely it is that you’re going to have more complications,” he said.

download our FREE CBC NEWS APP To sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for us Daily Headlines Newsletter Here. Click Visit our landing page here.