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| - On October 24th I was in Toronto East General (now renamed Michael Garron Hospital, please note, Yelp!) as an outpatient for a colonoscopy and gastroscopy. I arrived as scheduled 40 minutes before the procedure and registered on the main floor. But it was only when I got up to the 6th floor that I was handed one of those medical questionnaires asking what medical conditions do you have, what operations have you had, what medications do you take, what are you allergic to. I find that at the best of times, these questionnaires take a lot of concentration for you to remember everything sitting awkwardly with no desk balancing the clipboard in your lap. If you know anything about having a colonoscopy, you will know that your colon must be as clear as possible for the doctor to successfully perform the procedure. Of necessity you have to take 2 powerful laxatives, Pico-Salax and Dulcolax, which are meant to continue working on your colon right up until the procedure. So picture I am in acute intestinal discomfort and THIS is the time the idiots at Toronto East General Hospital choose to inconvenience and further stress me by giving one of these obnoxious medical questionnaires. Hello, it's 2016, people. Why isn't all this information already on file from when I initially consulted the surgeon on your hospital's staff? Why can't my medical files be uploaded from Humber River Regional Hospital instead of me handwriting this same info again and again without even a desk to sit at? Why in God's name couldn't they get this information at some point earlier in the procedure, not when I'm having to run to the bathroom every 5 minutes? I suddenly needed to do just that again. I had to abruptly throw the clipboard and pen to the floor and ask the 2 nurses at the counter where the nearest bathroom was. When I came back, livid with rage and embarrassment, I asked these 2 ladies whether they thought that having a questionnaire completed by a person immediately before a colonoscopy was the best time to ask them to do this. At first they told me they didn't know about the colonoscopy, they only knew I was having a gastroscopy (!) This poor communication didn't inspire me with confidence, especially since the gastroscopy info sheet which they'd just handed me said I was to have no hard candy or gum that morning. They were informing me of this way too late, because on coming into the hospital lobby I had bought a pack of gum to chew because my mouth was parched from fasting for hours for the colonoscopy, which wasn't scheduled till 2:00 pm. So I fretted about that and fretted about whether I'd answered the questionnaire properly because I wasn't able to concentrate under the circumstances. The two nurses agreed that the hospital shouldn't have given me the questionnaire right before the colonoscopy like that and that they had mentioned it to hospital administrators before, but that I had better complain as well "because no one ever listens to us!" By the time my surgeon saw me I was really upset. My surgeon assured me that my chewing gum wouldn't affect the gastroscopy (so why did the info sheet say you shouldn't do that?) and she also said she already had all my medical information on file. "I suppose the hospital wanted their own copy of your medical information." My question is WHY? Why did Toronto East General Hospital put me through this and make everything so much more stressful and why was everything so poorly planned and badly communicated? I have the distinct impression of an administration out of touch with patient care and completely uncaring.
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