As Ottawa plans to hike health funding, families say system doesn't learn from errors

Earlier this week, the federal government announced it would add $46 billion in new spending over ten years for the country's health-care systems. But some families -- along with some patient safety teachers and advocates -- say Canada's patchwork of quality-reviews systems need deep reforms to ensure that money is well spent.

When Diane Breen died unexpectedly following her visit to a Nova Scotia emergency room, her family was left grieving -- both over her loss and their sense that lessons weren't learned from the tragedy.

Kim and Jennifer DeWolfe say their 74-year-old mother spent eight hours waiting on Feb. 28 last year at the Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow, N.S., before being briefly seen by a doctor about a urinary tract infection.

Her charts said Breen -- a runner without health conditions -- told medical staff about a week of chills and cold sweats, but she was nonetheless discharged to her home with an antibiotic prescription.

Within hours, she was dead due to sepsis -- the body's extreme reaction to infection.

Her daughters applied for a quality review of her care, but instead of learning what happened, they were launched into an opaque process that experts say is typical of the frustrating experiences shared by families across Canada.

"What perhaps could have saved my mother was a doctor who saw her at intake, or a nurse who authorized blood work, or being screened for sepsis," Jennifer DeWolfe, 49, said in a recent interview.

"I'm pretty sure none of the needed steps are going to be made to change how things work."