In crowded N.B. hospital, 88-year-old awaiting nursing home placed in supply room
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SAINT JOHN, N.B. — The daughter of an 88-year-old woman who spent part of Thursday in a supply room at an overcrowded New Brunswick hospital says she’s alarmed by the shortages of space and staff in the province’s health facilities.
Karen Totten photographed her mother Irene MacNeill of Barnesville, N.B., lying in a supply room at the Saint John Regional Hospital, with a bed sheet hung up to give her some privacy and wearing dark glasses to help her rest in an area where lights couldn’t be dimmed. The image shows the woman surrounded by boxes and medical supplies.
Totten, a 65-year-old resident of Upham, N.B., says she published the disturbing images because she’s become alarmed by the staff shortages, the long wait time for her mother to receive a nursing home bed, and the lack of space in the hospital.
“Our system is really broken. How can (Premier Blaine) Higgs be reporting a surplus? If he has a surplus … get us some nurses and doctors and fix this mess that we knew was going to happen years ago,” she said, referring to the Progressive Conservative government’s recently announced $135.5 million projected budget surplus for 2022-23.
