The leader of the NDP says that Manitobans have a right to know if a patient’s death was caused by long wait times and a lack of staff
The head of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre says that when a patient died while waiting for care in the emergency room earlier this week, there were twice as many seriously ill or injured people there as usual.
Dr. Shawn Young, the chief operating officer of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, said that the emergency department was almost fully staffed when the patient arrived by ambulance around 11:30 p.m. Monday and was triaged.
After an hour, that patient’s condition started to get worse, and even though staff tried to bring them back to life, they were declared dead, Young said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
“We know that things like this can sometimes make people lose faith in the health care system,” Young said.
The patient’s time in the emergency room is being looked at as a possible critical incident, and the investigation will find out what could have been done differently, he said.
Young said that the average wait time in the ER that night was more than two hours. He said that, even though it’s a lot, that’s been the average lately.
Some patients have had to wait hours longer, though, because staffing problems in other units have made it hard to find beds for newly admitted patients.
“Staffing affects how quickly we can move patients and get them to the best place for them. So, patients who need a bed but can’t get one are often stuck in the emergency room for hours or even days,” “Young said.
The president of the Manitoba Nurses’ Union, Darlene Jackson, says that several nurses worked extra hours on Monday night.
“This whole thing happened because there weren’t enough nurses in that department. We didn’t have enough staff, so many nurses had to work extra hours. It was a very serious situation “In an interview with CBC on Thursday, Jackson said.
“This is a great example of how the system fails.”
Jackson says that HSC nurses talked to Health Minister Audrey Gordon about their worries about patient safety at a meeting in November, but nothing was done right away to address their worries.
“There’s been no action on any of that, and there’s been no plan put forward,” she said. “We’re eager to see what her health human resources plan has in store for those nurses in the Health Sciences Center emergency department.”
The office of the health minister has been asked for a response by CBC News.
Sparring in question perio
Earlier in the day, Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew asked Premier Heather Stefanson to say something about the death of the patient during question period.
“We will fight to make sure all Manitobans get the health care they need when they need it,” Stefanson said, but she wouldn’t say anything else until the investigation is over.
Kinew said that there’s nothing stopping the premier from talking about staffing and wait times at HSC.
“On Monday night, there were a lot of people who had been admitted waiting for a bed. We know that some patients had to wait more than 80 hours to be admitted,” “he said.
“Manitobans have a right to know if these conditions played a role in the death we saw in the HSC emergency room.”
In response, Stefanson thanked the people who work in health care.