The overcrowding at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie has hit another high.
A trip to the emergency room leaves little to the imagination when it comes to overcrowding.
"We’re in crisis. I'm not sure how much worse it can get," says Dr. Monica Wolnik, emergency room physician at RVH.
A crisis even though the hospital opened a 36 bed transitional care unit in December and added four more beds due to high demand.
Martin Bertelsen has spent the last 40 days at RVH. He's now in the transitional care unit waiting to be transferred to a senior’s home.
"Everybody complains about high taxes, but when they come to the hospital, they expect absolute great care," says Bertelsen.
It’s care that doctors and nurses are often forced to give their sick patients wherever they can.
"It's never easy to work in this kind of a situation. We're putting them in hallways, on a bed, a stretcher, a chair to try and make the best that we can," Wolnik says.
She says the busy flu season is part of the problem, but these patients make up only a small percentage of those seeking urgent treatment.
"We are seeing sicker people with more complex issues. We're seeing an older population. This is really just the tip of the iceberg," she says.
All 40 beds in the transitional care unit are currently full.
