north shore news —

50,000 CASES EACH YEAR AT LGH

Your throat is sore, you're feverish and you just know that you're going to spend another night coughing instead of sleeping. Maybe you

should pop by the Emergency Depart- ment and get

something for it.

You're stripping the old paint off the garden fur- niture and your hand slips. It doesn't bleed for very long but it looks like it might need a stitch. Best run up to Emergency.

That rash on your chest is now decorating your stomach as well. Wonder what it is. Oh well, they'll know at Emergency.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

There is a tendency in our

community to view the hospital's Emergency Department as a drop-in

health clinic. A tendency, says Dr. D.A. Grant who as Chief of General Practice is responsible for the Division of Emergency Medicine, that comes from a lack of understanding of the role of the Emergency Department in the delivery of medical services in the community. The Lions Gate Hospital Emergency Department is a busy place, averaging about 50,000 cases a year or about 140 a day. The primary responsibility of the Emergency Department staff

are six Registered Nurses, one ward clerk and one service aide. The Depart- ment’s one orderly works an 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. shift.

The problem is that not all the Department's customers are emergencies. Many people take their aches, pains, cuts and bruises to Emergency instead of contacting their own doc- tors. The result is over- crowding, delays and escalating costs.

Each arrival in Emergency is greeted by a registered nurse, who assesses the case. If it is decided that emergency treatment is not necessary the patient is referred to his or her own doctor. No one is refused treatment but the patient will be charged a $37 non- emergency treatment fee. .

Besides allowing’ the Emergency department to concentrate on urgent cases, there are other good reasons for contacting your own family doctor. Among them: your family doctor is already familiar with yoru medical ° history and a visit to your doctor's office is covered under your Medical Plan coverage.

During the day a Jot of Situations can be handled right in the doctor's office, says Dr. Grant. And in the evenings there is always a doctor on call.

“And most doctors have

IN THE ‘first ald’ section of L.H.G. Emergency ward, Dr. Brace Long, applies dressing after stitching the finger of Colin Hepburn, a welder who got his finger

caught between two pieces of steel last Friday. (lan Smith photo)

another doctor covering for is to treat life-threatening them or are members of a medical emergencies. call group with one doctor

There is a doctor on duty) on call for the group’s round the clock, drawn from patients, so that there is

the 1S doctors in’ the = always a doctor available 24 Division of Emergency hours aday.”

Services During the “Lf people will get into the Department's peak hours. habit of contacting their 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., there doctor instead of coming

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straight to the Emergency Department, it will help us to ensure rapid efficient medical services for people in emergency situations,” says Dr. Grant.

But, he stresses, there are umes when you should not hesitate to make use of the Emergency Department. If

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you think there is something seriously wrong, if there is a head injury, a_ suspected broken bone, a _ severe laceration or burn, profuse bleeding, chest pain or respiratory problems — report to the Emergency Department’ tmmediately. That's whatits there for.

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