Wait times in Winnipeg emergency rooms have hit their worst levels in years, latest numbers reveal
Woman describes 'heartbreaking' scene during 10-hour wait in crowded ER this week
The moment Alyson Shane saw the blood on the pavement after falling off her bike, she worried the worst was yet to come.
"My first thought was, 'Oh God, I have to go sit in an ER. I'm going to be there for 12 hours,'" she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Shane hit a pothole while cycling in Winnipeg and was thrown over the handlebars of her bike. After her helmeted head hit the pavement, she was disoriented and the gash on her forehead was bleeding profusely.
At the Health Sciences Centre, staff bandaged her up and she waited from 4 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. to be seen by a doctor, who treated her with stitches and medication.
She was pleased with the care she received, but not with the 10½-hour wait.
"It was incredibly busy, every single chair was full. I would say there were a couple dozen people there at any given time. It got more full as the evening went on," said Shane.
She said an Indigenous man in a wheelchair repeatedly called for help, saying he had chest pain, and a nurse kept responding that there was no bed available. She overheard a woman who said she was blind complaining of a nearly nine-hour wait. She says a younger woman was denied a blanket after saying she was cold.
"It was really frustrating and disheartening and seeing how the other people in there were suffering just … it was really heartbreaking. It was really hard."
According to the most recent data released by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, median wait times at city emergency departments and urgent care centres have shot up to their highest levels in at least the past seven years.
The median time before hospital admission — an average representing the point where half of patients had shorter wait times, and half had longer wait times — was 2.53 hours in July. That's a 41 per cent increase over the previous month, when the median wait time was 1.8 hours.
The situation is worse when looking at the 90th percentile measure, which shows the ER waits endured by the patients at the longest end of the spectrum.
In July, 10 per cent of Health Sciences Centre patients had to wait at least 9½ hours after registering at the front desk, about two hours longer than June, and nearly five hours longer than July of last year.
Hospital staff have been sounding the alarm for months over nursing and capacity issues at Winnipeg ERs, marked by dangerous wait times and staff burnout, as patient volumes return to pre-pandemic levels. In early August, a man died at St. Boniface Hospital after having a cardiac arrest in the ER waiting room while waiting, unmonitored, for cardiac care.
St. Boniface emergency physician Dr. Paul Doucet told CBC News the situation hasn't improved.
"Not much new to say. Still a capacity issue, that makes it difficult to impossible to see people in a timely manner," he wrote in a text message, adding capacity refers to bed and nursing shortages within the entire hospital, leading to ER bottlenecks.
20% nurse vacancy rate at HSC
In a statement, a spokesperson for Shared Health wrote that wait times have not increased for the sickest patients, and anyone in Manitoba in need of emergency care should still visit the emergency department or call 911.
But wait times for people with less urgent needs have been "well above" normal levels in recent weeks, the spokesperson wrote, which ties back directly or indirectly to the pandemic. The nurse vacancy rate in the HSC emergency department is currently 20 per cent, according to the spokesperson, a number they hope to see drop in October as new hires arrive.
When Manitoba's intensive care unit bed base was increased to help COVID patients in the second and third waves, the spokesperson wrote, many nurses moved to support those areas, affecting staff levels in emergency departments. The spokesperson added some nursing staff who would typically pick up shifts in the ER are now choosing to work and train in critical care.
Compounding those issues are the emergence of patients, according to the Shared Health spokesperson, who had delayed care during COVID and are now seeking care with more complex issues, leading to longer stays.
The spokesperson said "significant efforts" are underway to stabilize staffing levels and improve patient flow through the emergency department at HSC.
"The nursing crisis here in Manitoba has escalated to a disastrous state. Wait times and hallway medicine are back," said Darlene Jackson, in a statement, adding the union has called attention to these issues for years.
"In fact, record high wait times in July, the worst month in the last seven years, is unspeakable."
Jackson added the union is focused on supporting nurses and urging the government to "work with us" so patient standards can be restored.
Alyson Shane said she believes the problems are a result of hospital consolidation that began in 2017, when the province led the reduction of Winnipeg's six emergency departments to three and nurses were shuffled throughout the system. After her fall, a bystander originally took her to the Misericordia Health Centre as it was closest, but staff at the door directed her to HSC for her injuries.
"This government cut emergency rooms. They took an ER away from a hospital in my community. That could have taken pressure off of HSC, taken pressure off of those health-care providers who were so stressed. The look on their faces as they were running around. The word heartbreaking just comes up over and over," she said.
"It was just really hard seeing everybody there, looking like hell, suffering and being a part of that."
