The brief to the Wellesley Hospital related a number of experiences from different patients who had comments to make about the quality of care at the hospital. Below are some excerpts from these comments:

“The outside door (of the outpatient clinic in Orthopaedics) is very difficult to open if you have an injured back. This might also be true for patients with arthritis, arm or leg injuries.”

“The doctors have forbidden me to sit on a soft chair with a sloped back, but this is the only type of chair provided in the waiting room for the Orthopaedic Clinic. After two weeks of total immobility flat on my back in bed by order, I was expected to sit for one hour and 55 minutes in a painfully uncomfortable chair with nowhere to lie down.”

“I attended this clinic three times. The last time I waited a painful two hours and twenty minutes in spite of the fact that I had an appointment, to then see a doctor for a cursory one and a half minute non-examination. I won’t go back again.”

“Why in the world aren’t there washrooms clearly visible in the waiting room?...If you are sick to your stomach, you have to vomit in a tiny K-basin (good luck!). A lot of people get more anxiety when they realize that there are no facilities if you’re going to be sick to your stomach.”

“The most glaring thing missing in the waiting room...is literature! Why can’t the hospital have hundreds of informative pamphlets for the reading of patients and family during the wait?...The medical profession loves to think that they have privileged rights to medicine. Anyone can read and learn – it’s just that you may, for instance, get up and leave!”

“I feel it is the job of health professionals to help relieve the fear of being ill, especially in an emergency situation. This is NOT being done and the community should ask the hospitals serving the community why?”

Published in Seven News, Volume 7, Number 23, May 21, 1977.

Related topics:
Hospitals