A Toronto hospital is apologizing for a filthy room in its emergency department you first learned about on NEWSTALK 1010
Genevieve LeBlanc told NEWSTALK 1010's the Night Side what she experienced at St. Joseph's Health Care this week was like something out of a horror movie.
While LeBlanc, who had gone to the hospital for help with a piece of food lodged in her windpipe, says the staff were friendly and attentive, the examination room she was ushered into left a lot to be desired.
She says the space seemed to be doubling as a storage room littered with garbage and supplies, including crutches.
"There was dirt on the floor. All the table surfaces had these dark brown stains on them. There was medical equipment kind of strewn around, not on sterilized plates. There was an empty cup on the desk, there was dust everywhere and it just didn't look like something from real life."
While LeBlanc conceded there may be a perfectly logical explanation for all the stains, they raised questions of cleanliness.
On Wednesday St. Joseph's Health Care said it had apologized to LeBlanc and that her experience did not appear to meet their standards. The hospital issued the following statement:
"St. Joseph's Health Centre appreciates the concerns raised by a patient who visited our Emergency Department this week and was shared with us by NewsTalk 1010.
We are in the process of investigating Ms. Leblanc's concern to assess how we might improve our processes to ensure our patients continue to receive great care in a clean, safe and orderly environment. St. Joseph's Health Centre follows national health care standards related to Infection Prevention and Control and environmental service cleaning. The photos and videos provided by Ms. LeBlanc do not appear to meet our standards and we are taking needed action to rectify this.
Our Patient Relations Department received an email message from Ms. Leblanc and contacted her this morning to apologize for her experience, to seek her feedback and input, and explain how we will improve the cleanliness of the department she visited. We have committed to follow up with Ms. Leblanc on the results of our review. "
With files from Corinne Van Dusen