Dear editor,I am a 46-year-old mother of two who looks after her 73-year-old blind mother.I watched the Oct. 25 TV segment on 16×9 entitled Bed Blockers.I also just spent eight days in hospital and saw firsthand how crowded the hospital is in Port Alberni.I had wonderful care except for the night I spent in the bathtub room on a gurney. A gurney in the bathtub room is not a proper bed and is used far too often — i.e., three out of the seven nights I was there.During my stay, one senior gentleman fell off the gurney in the bathtub room, much to the distress of the nursing staff.I encourage others interested in this problem to read Senator Sharon Carstairs’ report on her website at http://sen.parl.gc.ca/scarstairs/new-index-e.htm. I want to know how we can give our elders the palliative care they need to avoid this expensive and inefficient overcrowding of our hospitals? What can we do as citizens to make the right things happen?Cynthia Geddes,Comox
Hospital overcrowding expensive, inefficient
Dear editor,
I am a 46-year-old mother of two who looks after her 73-year-old blind mother.
