{"id":459394,"date":"2026-02-07T08:44:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T08:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459394\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T08:44:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T08:44:35","slug":"2-deaths-after-lengthy-er-waits-need-public-inquiry-manitoba-pc-leader-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459394\/","title":{"rendered":"2 deaths after lengthy ER waits need public inquiry: Manitoba PC leader – Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leader of Manitoba\u2019s opposition is calling for a full public inquiry into the province\u2019s health-care system following the deaths of two women in Winnipeg after waiting hours in the emergency room for help.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan made the call on Wednesday, citing the deaths of Stacey Ross<\/a> and Judy Burns at St. Boniface Hospital last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Manitobans need answers on what\u2019s happening, they need to have that accountability and transparency,\u201d Khan told Global News in an interview.<\/p>\n

Ross\u2019 family told Global News on Monday she was brought to hospital the morning of Jan. 15 but didn\u2019t get a room until about 9:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Sheri Ross, Stacey\u2019s sister, said they received a call at 11 p.m. to get to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe walked in the room and her daughter started to cry and she (Stacey) said, \u2018It\u2019s OK, I\u2019m going to be OK,\u2019 and then we never saw her again,\u201d Sheri told Global News in an interview on Monday.<\/p>\n

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It was the second time in two weeks Ross had gone to hospital with complaints of chest pain and difficulty breathing. The first time she was not seen for 12 hours and sent home without medication.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara confirmed Tuesday that a critical incident investigation had been launched.<\/p>\n

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Asagwara told 680 CJOB Radio a visit with the family took place on Wednesday. 680 CJOB Radio is a station under Corus Entertainment, Global News\u2019 parent company.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was there to listen and also provide reassurance that this will be thoroughly investigated,\u201d Asagwara said. \u201cThey will have all of their questions answered and we will ensure that we take steps moving forward to prevent a tragedy like this from happening to another family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan told Global News he wants the public inquiry, because a critical incident investigation won\u2019t be made public, making it harder to hold the government accountable.<\/p>\n

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The state of Manitoba\u2019s health-care system has been a point of contention for years.<\/p>\n

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the median emergency department and urgent care wait times were about two hours in Winnipeg, according to data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.<\/p>\n

By 2022, that number increased by more than an hour under the then-PC government, but the data shows the numbers continued to increase. The NDP took power in 2023.<\/p>\n

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In December 2025, the length of wait in Winnipeg emergency departments and urgent care had hit about four hours.<\/p>\n

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On Wednesday, the estimated emergency wait time at St. Boniface Hospital was about 9.5 hours, with Health Sciences Centre\u2019s adult wing at 10.75 hours.<\/p>\n

The NDP under Premier Wab Kinew had promised to fix the health-care system since its campaign, but some say more changes are needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system in its current state is remarkably expensive and the problem is it isn\u2019t delivering the things we\u2019re paying for,\u201d said Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy at the Fraser Institute.<\/p>\n

The province\u2019s health minister said investments need to be made to make the system strong, and said they\u2019ve made steps to \u201cfix the damage\u201d done. Asagwara pointed to welcoming U.S.-trained doctors and nurses to the system as an example, but added there\u2019s still more to do.<\/p>\n

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Asked about Khan\u2019s call for a public inquiry, Asagwara acknowledged questions are asked when tragedy occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that public inquiries are sort of like blunt tools,\u201d Asagwara said. \u201cBut we also know that there\u2019s a process underway right now that is going to allow for the families to get clarity and get answers, in addition to other work that our government has been doing to better understand how we make improvements in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the action taken, the head of the Manitoba Nurses Union says its members feel little progress has been made by the province to \u201cfix\u201d health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny progress that\u2019s been made has been entirely reactionary,\u201d said president Darlene Jackson. \u201cI feel as if the public and our members and nurses and front-line workers have been let down by this government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union is set to vote on potentially grey-listing St. Boniface Hospital. If voted for, it would be the third hospital to be grey-listed by the union since last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014with files from Global News\u2019 Vasilios Bellos<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leader of Manitoba\u2019s opposition is calling for a full public inquiry into the province\u2019s health-care system following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,187955,84,392,21132,123286],"class_list":{"0":"post-459394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-er-wait-times","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-hospital-wait-times","14":"tag-manitoba-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}