Dear Editor:
When COVID-19 first started, we had no idea how this strange virus that had spread throughout the world was going to change our lives big time.
The nurses, doctors, paramedics and caregivers went into action doing what they do best and what they were trained to do: taking care of sick people. It was as new to our front-line workers as it was to the rest of the population, and it was scary. Yet they did not falter, and we banged pots and pans, and we gave them coffee cards and lunch cards to show our gratitude.
Some of the front-line workers caught this mystery virus and still those who were healthy soldiered on, and almost three years later they are still there. They stayed the course and they are so very tired.
They are still doing what they did in the beginning, but we are not. No longer are pots banged. Instead, they face a tired, disgruntled, angry and complaining public.
The emergency department of our Lions Gate Hospital is standing-room only as the sick lay on stretchers, sit in misery in the waiting room for hours, some wrapped in blankets, small children crying quietly, as worried young parents hold them close and sit and wait and wait. The nurses and the doctors are almost running from patient to patient and yet the sick keep piling in.
Having had the misfortune to experience the emergency department of LGH three times in the last three years, my concerns are for our nurses and doctors and at this gallant little hospital that has not closed its doors to anybody. The staff are working long hours, they are tired, they go home after these long shifts to their families that need them also. I don’t know how they do it.
We should still be banging those pots, extending our hands and hearts to these brave caregivers, because the medical system was floundering long before COVID. This dreadful medical crisis is the result of a serious lack of understanding, planning and management from those who can make a difference – our three levels of government: municipal, provincial and federal.
I just want to say thank-you to the “little hospital that could” for not closing its doors. Thank you to all the caregivers who are staying the course and caring for us.
We should be grateful and stop grumbling at the nurses and direct our grumbles to the people who need to step up to the plate and start fixing our medical system.
After we finally get to go home, the caregivers are still there in the emergency department and at their stations, coping with an overwhelming situation.
Maureen Bragg
Lynn Valley
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