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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
The Misericordia Health Centre is among three long-term care centres that has been directed by the WRHA to make space for hospital patients. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The spokesperson described the measures as part of \u201cstandard surge protocol,\u201d atypical and temporary, but did not provide a timeline of how long patients would be staying at the health-care centres.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province is experiencing an unusual surge in hospitalizations this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe surges that we see, maybe during flu season, those other windows of time where we see very, very sick folks presenting in sort of these waves, usually that depressurizes in the summer,\u201d Asagwara said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n Manitoba health minister Uzoma Asagwara says the province is experiencing a surge in hospitalizations this summer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what we\u2019re seeing, actually, is that there\u2019s a demand that we really haven\u2019t seen before during the summer, which is obviously a concern. \u201c<\/p>\n Asagwara said patients are arriving at hospitals with more complex and severe illnesses than in past summers, and a growing senior population could be exacerbating the issue.<\/p>\n Asagwara called the WRHA\u2019s plan \u201ca responsible response to unprecedented volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we know is that we would be in much worse shape had we not spent the last, over two years, almost three years, adding the capacity to the health-care system and in-community (care) that we have,\u201d the minister said, pointing to new transitional beds opened under the NDP government.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we also know that we need to rapidly continue to add more capacity, particularly in our communities, so that we can support improved flow and again make sure that people are able to get care in the right places at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing, actually, is that there\u2019s a demand that we really haven\u2019t seen before during the summer, which is obviously a concern. \u201c<\/p>\n The three long-term care facilities are already struggling with a large number of patients, said Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson, and she\u2019s concerned staff won\u2019t be able to handle more.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are you going to get the extra staff to staff these beds that you want to open?\u201d she said Friday. \u201cThat is my No. 1 question, and is this going to be just another issue where we add more patients and nurses just take higher and higher patient loads?\u201d<\/p>\n The union has long advocated for patients who need long-term care to be moved out of acute-care beds more quickly and into improved community home-care services, enabling hospitals to discharge them when they\u2019re ready to be moved, rather than having to wait several weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this tells me is it\u2019s just shuffling patients out of the hospital into another bed without actually dealing with the root cause of the wait times in emergency,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s basically a shell game, moving patients from bed to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n The provincial NDP promised improvements to wait times in hospitals before being elected to government in 2023. While the party points to the hiring of thousands of health-care workers and new hospital beds, Jackson said wait times continue to be dire.<\/p>\n She suggested the patient shuffle could be \u201cpolitical\u201d in nature.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson says the patient shuffle could be \u201cpolitical\u201d in nature.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe are heading into an election year next year, and so I think this is an attempt to try and look like we\u2019re fixing health care when really we\u2019re not dealing with the root cause of what\u2019s happening at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s basically a shell game, moving patients from bed to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n Progressive Conservative health Critic Kathleen Cook said the statement provided by the WRHA \u201cfails to give patients, families or health-care workers any reassurance that the underlying problems are being addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe crisis in Manitoba\u2019s hospitals calls for an expansion of home care, supportive housing, and long-term care options that will allow Manitobans to be discharged from hospital in a timely manner \u2014 and help keep Manitobans out of the ER in the first place,\u201d Cook said in an email.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil then, Manitoba patients and front-line staff will continue to scramble, as they are being asked to do today.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Manitoba Health Coalition provincial director Noah Schulz called the situation \u201ca sad state of affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a big strain on staff, as well, who are already being told to do more with less, and are used to a certain kind of clientele, and now these may be folks with different needs than they\u2019re appropriately trained to handle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real concern, and I think a consequence of a neglected and underfunded health-care system.\u201d<\/p>\n malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Malak Abas Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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