I’m not ashamed to admit I get the odd homesick bellyaches from time to time, but I knew the abdominal discomfort I was experiencing on Thursday wasn’t ordinary.
Hardly six weeks into my new life in Toronto, I decided to get checked at the emergency department as a precaution — on Halloween, of all days.
Admittedly, I was a little nervous to go as I’ve never received medical care outside of Sault Ste. Marie. I still make appointments with my dentist, optometrist and family doctor when I travel home.
But before I could even leave my downtown apartment and get assessed, my personal healthcare experience was already different from up north: I had more than one option for emergency care.
Five different hospitals were staring me down on Google Maps — and those were just the facilities located within minutes of me.
Not really knowing what my 'best' option was, I just headed to the closest one: St. Michael’s Hospital.
From the outside, I’d have never known St. Michael’s was a hospital without the signage. Its tall, glass facade really blends in with all the other towers around it.
I headed inside at 6 p.m. and was registered and triaged right away — a perfect start.
One of my first positive impressions of the emergency department was the television in the waiting room (no, it did not have a hockey game playing, unfortunately).
A graphic on the screen showed that patients arriving at this time should be able to see a doctor within 2 hours and 19 minutes. Assuming it was accurate, I thought that was a fantastic way to be transparent with residents seeking care. I’d never seen this in the Sault.
An hour after being triaged, I was moved to a curtained off space with a bed directly in the emergency room.
A friendly, younger doctor came by before 8 p.m. and asked me questions regarding my visit while he performed a physical examination. One of the nurses then took my vitals.
About half of an hour later, a more experienced physician joined the young doctor. He provided a second examination and had some more questions for me.
The nurse returned to complete blood work before I was sent back to the front of the emergency room to wait for my results.
In just two and a half hours, my vitals were checked twice, I chatted with two doctors and my blood work was submitted.
Back home, that would be unheard of.
The emergency room crisis is no joke up north, and it isn’t a secret that nurses and doctors are overworked and understaffed there.
Every time I chat with someone about their healthcare experience in the Sault, wait times are too often in the 8 to 12-hour range. However, the Sault Area Hospital recently said their wait times have consistently fallen below five hours.
Occasionally, the department gets so overwhelmed that the hospital is forced to issue social media alerts — requesting locals with non-urgent needs to consider other options.
This reality sparked a thought while I was waiting at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Say if you had travel points for flights — and depending on the type of emergency care required — could you theoretically take a one-hour flight to Toronto, receive care here, and then fly back to Sault Ste. Marie all in less time? Maybe people have already tried this.
In my past reporting, I’ve spoken with concerned citizens about their small-town emergency departments. In some instances, hospitals have been forced to close for a third time within a week due to the physician shortage, like in the small town of Thessalon — located an hour east of the Sault. The residents would literally say, “Better not get sick.”
While I was grateful for going in and out of St. Michael’s in less than five hours, the contrast was loud. Toronto has certain luxuries — like a laundry list of hospitals and boots on the ground — that my friends and family just don’t have immediate access to.
That was the scariest part of Halloween for me this year.
