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Health minister’s office raises doubts about woman’s ‘degrading’ stay at Juravinski hospital
Hamilton woman, Kathy Cooper says she has had a terrible stay at Juravinski hospital. Cooper says she was kept in a bed in a storage closet for three days due to the hospital’s capacity, “…that was degrading.”
On Monday, Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones’ office appeared to be trying to raise doubts about whether Cooper’s story actually happened. Cooper tells CHCH News she feels like the government is calling her a liar.
READ MORE: Hamilton woman spent 3 days inside Juravinski hospital storage closet
In Monday’s statement, Jones’ office says it was unable to confirm if Cooper was actually put in a closet in the hospital. Minister Jones was in Welland on Tuesday for a long-term care home announcement where CHCH News asked Jones about Cooper’s story, and why her office appeared to doubt it.
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Jones says, “These are disturbing stories, and these are disturbing stories that our government has been focused on since we came to government in 2018 where we made commitments and investments to ensure that hallway medicine cannot continue in the province of Ontario.”
When asked about her office’s response to Cooper’s story, Jones acknowledged that more needs to be done and says that the government is building new hospitals. “We have over 50 hospital capital builds whether they are new hospitals, expanded hospitals, or renovated hospitals, which is historic. And it really speaks to our commitment to ensure that those types of experiences are in the past.”
However, Jones refused to comment on Cooper’s story specifically, “I will not speak to the individual hospital, I will leave that to their leadership.”
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Cooper was not available for an interview on Tuesday but tells CHCH News that the government has not reached out to her to verify her experience.
Cooper shared photos and videos with us that show a posting on the wall of her room at the hospital saying “Please do not leave the stock room untidy.” She had a portable toilet beside the bed, and an old-fashioned steel desk bell instead of a modern call bell to the nurse. Cooper says the staff at Juravinski were great but says no one should go through what she did.
Hamilton MPP Monique Taylor brought up Cooper’s ordeal in the legislature last week, but in Monday’s statement, the government said they “strongly encourage” MPPs like Taylor to “verify stories of a patient’s experience” before making them public.
Taylor says, “I think it’s unfortunate that the minister decided to deflect and not believe our story in the legislature, instead of just following up with Kathy personally, or with myself to ensure that they had that availability to talk to Kathy.”
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Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) issued a statement to CHCH News on Tuesday and confirmed that patients who are deemed stable may need to be cared for in unconventional spaces, and acknowledged that one of the spaces identified was a portion of the hallway used for equipment storage that was repurposed for patient care.
CHCH News has heard from many viewers as well as over 200 commenters on Facebook many of whom say they, or people they know, have gone through similar experiences.
