On a July afternoon in Fredericton, a man in a wheelchair sat in the waiting room of a hospital, in pain, and slipped away before anyone noticed he had stopped breathing. His death came in the same week that the country's premiers gathered in Victoria and named the health-care system as crumbling, a word that fits the wider story of long waits, empty doctors' lists and a system stretched past its limits. A fellow patient's social media post is what brought the moment to public view, and it stands as a quiet reminder that behind every statistic about waiting there is a person who was simply wai
As Premiers Decry 'Crumbling' Health Care, New Brunswick Man Dies in Hospital Waiting Room
A man in great discomfort died in a Fredericton hospital waiting room while awaiting care, found unresponsive about an hour later.
On a July afternoon in Fredericton, a man in a wheelchair sat in the waiting room of a hospital, in pain, and slipped away before anyone noticed he had stopped breathing. His death came in the same week that the country's premiers gathered in Victoria and named the health-care system as crumbling, a word that fits the wider story of long waits, empty doctors' lists and a system stretched past its limits. A fellow patient's social media post is what brought the moment to public view, and it stands as a quiet reminder that behind every statistic about waiting there is a person who was simply waiting.
On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, a man in a wheelchair sat in the waiting room of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He appeared to be in great discomfort, then seemed to fall asleep. An hour later, a staffer checked on him and found he was not breathing. He had died while waiting for care.
John Staples, a residential support worker who was also waiting in the ER that day, described what he saw in a Facebook post that spread widely. "I was there to see a fellow New Brunswicker pass away in a hospital waiting room," he wrote. Without his account, the death might have gone largely unnoticed.
It came only hours after Canada's premiers, meeting in Victoria, called the health-care system "crumbling" and asked for larger federal health transfers so Canadians can get care when they need it. The numbers behind that plea are hard to ignore. Ontario ER patients wait an average of 20 hours, and specialist waits have grown to 11 weeks. Nova Scotia's family doctor list hit 100,000 names, and nearly a million British Columbians have no family physician.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that the problem is not simply a lack of money, pointing instead to provincial misspending. How Ottawa and the provinces settle that argument will shape whether anything changes for the people sitting in waiting rooms like the one in Fredericton.
On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, a man in a wheelchair sat in the waiting room of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, New Brunswick. According to John Staples, a residential support worker who was also waiting in the ER, the man appeared to be in great discomfort. Then he seemed to fall asleep.
An hour later, an emergency room staffer went to check on him and noticed he was not breathing. The man died there, in the waiting room, while waiting for care. Staples wrote about it in a Facebook post that was widely shared. "I was there to see a fellow New Brunswicker pass away in a hospital waiting room," he wrote. The death was described as unexpected, and the National Post noted it might have gone unreported without his account.
The timing was stark. Only hours earlier, Canada's premiers, meeting in Victoria, had declared the country's health-care system "crumbling." Their joint statement, issued on behalf of all 13 premiers and territorial leaders, argued that Canadians should be able to get the tests, procedures and health services they need when they need them. Their proposed remedy was a boost to federal health transfers.
The numbers behind that statement are grim. According to Health Quality Ontario, the average emergency room patient in Ontario waits 20.1 hours for care. Hospitals there aim to move patients through within eight hours, but only 24 per cent meet that target. A December Fraser Institute report found the average Canadian waits 11.1 weeks for a specialist consultation, up 201 per cent from 3.7 weeks in 1993.
The shortage of family doctors is spreading too. Nova Scotia's waiting list for a family doctor reached an all-time high of 100,000 names this week, about 10 per cent of the province's population, with an average of 241 people joining every day. In British Columbia, nearly one million residents have no family doctor, including one in five people in Victoria, where the premiers met. In Prince Edward Island, the 811 telehealth line, meant to relieve pressure on emergency rooms, now has hold times of more than 12 hours. Medimap data show the average British Columbian waits 58 minutes at a walk-in clinic, and more than two hours in some places.
Strain on the system predates the pandemic. A bad flu season alone could push hospital capacity to 150 per cent. Canada has roughly 2.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared with 5.7 in France and 7.8 in Germany. COVID-19 added staffing shortages and surgical backlogs. In March, the Canadian Medical Association warned that "without immediate action, there is little to hope for in the future," citing exhausted health-care workers facing huge backlogs and too few colleagues.
Other patients have told similar stories this week. Ron Prickett of Ontario said he was left in a hospital hallway for four days with a shattered leg, waiting for surgery. "What century are we in?" he told CBC.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answered the premiers' call for more money by suggesting the crisis is not necessarily about funding. He hinted that the "huge investments" of previous federal governments had been misspent at the provincial level. How that dispute between Ottawa and the provinces is resolved will shape what, if anything, changes for people sitting in waiting rooms like the one in Fredericton.
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