Winnipeg hospitals must transfer 45 patients per week to other regions to meet demand: document

Winnipeg hospitals must move at least 45 patients per week to facilities in other health regions, an internal Shared Health document says, as health-care workers try to accommodate more and more sick people during the COVID-19 pandemic's fourth wave.

The document, dated Dec. 10, says three Winnipeg hospitals — Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface and Grace — will each have to move one patient every weekday to other facilities in the province, while Victoria, Seven Oaks and Concordia will each have to move two per day.

That comes to nine moves per day from Winnipeg, or 45 moves per week.

The Interlake-Eastern Health Authority must move two patients each weekday to other health regions, the document says.

"Sites are expected to meet minimum targets but [are] welcome to exceed them," it says.

Earlier this week, Shared Health said publicly that patients from the Interlake-Eastern and Winnipeg health regions would be moved to other health-care facilities, but didn't say how many were expected to be transferred.

The province introduced a policy of moving stable patients to other facilities to free up hospital space about two months ago. Since then, 79 stable patients have already been transferred, Shared Health said in a statement Monday.

In some cases, patients have been transferred hundreds of kilometres away from their home communities.

But Winnipeg ICU physician Dr. Eric Jacobsohn says there is no other choice than to transfer patients.

"This is the best choice out of few, or absolutely poor, choices available," he said.

"How did we get to this? That's the fundamental issue. This is a horrible choice. You can just imagine the emotional toll this takes on family, having your loved one shut out. But right now, what is the other option?"

Hospitals are facing a "perfect storm" right now: an underfunded health-care system plus a global pandemic, said Jacobsohn.

"And patients are paying the price."

At a press conference Wednesday, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said the transfers are meant to ensure everyone has access to safe and equitable care in the midst of a growing backlog of surgical and diagnostic procedures.

Transfer decisions will be made between doctors and hospital leaders, Gordon said.

"I've heard in phone calls to my office and in emails that Manitobans do not want their surgeries to be cancelled. They want to be able to access the care that they need during this very difficult time," she said. 

"We're all in this together, and that will require that we take a provincial approach to our local issues."

Move challenging for patients' families

That doesn't make it easier for patients sent away.

Jackie Jonasson, who lives in Ashern, in Manitoba's Interlake, said her mother was taken to Grace Hospital in Winnipeg with a serious infection.

"They told me that they had beds for 32 patients and they had 61 people in the emergency. So my mom was basically laying on a gurney for four days in the hallway," Jonasson said.

Her mother was then transferred to Killarney in southwestern Manitoba — about a three-and-a-half-hour drive for Jonasson.

Jonasson said her mother got good care at the rural hospital.

"The actual aspect of her getting care was looked after, and was looked after well. But for convenience of older people to be away from family members, it was very inconvenient for us," she said.

During her mother's two-week stay in hospital in Killarney, Jonasson and her husband visited once, and her brother and father visited another time.

"The weather was terrible, horrendous, both days when we all went," she said.

"I do know that in the end, though, that was probably the best thing that could have happened to her."