The increase in COVID-19 infections in Winnipeg extends the waiting time for hospital emergency departments and emergency care, says the head of the Winnipeg Health Region, contrary to government claims that infected patients seek help for other reasons.
In an email to the Winnipeg Regional Health Service on Friday, WRHA President and CEO Mike Nader said Winnipeg hospitals were seeing a “higher-than-normal” jump in COVID and more patients. patients than earlier in the pandemic.
This increases the waiting time in emergency departments and emergency departments to levels he described as “relevant”, especially for patients who are less ill, he said in an email.
Patients also stay longer in emergency and emergency departments while waiting for COVID tests, he added.
Hospital time for hospital staff is now at an all-time high, he said, in part because some staff do not work with symptoms or confirmed cases of COVID-19.
“COVID continues to spread in the community. This leads to a higher than normal increase in patients with COVID-positive drugs and creates additional pressure, “Nader told staff by email on Friday night.
“We are now seeing patients who initially avoided seeking medical help during the pandemic are generally sicker on presentation. As a result, they need more and more long-term medical care.
Previous attempts to relocate patients from emergency and intensive care units in Winnipeg to less congested hospitals have been significantly affected by weather events, Nader said, which has further strained the system.
Nader’s statement contradicted repeated statements by Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Brent Rusin and Prime Minister Heather Stephenson, who described COVID’s hospitalizations as having little impact on hospitals.
“Many of our hospitalizations are accidental – for something else, but they happen to have COVID,” Stephenson said on April 19.
Nader told reporters Monday that the increased number of COVID patients is indeed affecting hospitals, given the isolation measures needed for infectious patients, the personal protective equipment they must wear and the possibility of transferring those patients. in other wards.
“The challenge we face with patients who have COVID in hospital is that it seriously disrupts our workflow,” Nader said.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Monday that she was concerned about the long waiting time in emergency departments, but said there were no plans to amend public health orders to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
“I am very concerned about the waiting time and the number of people who have to wait a long time,” Gordon told reporters at the Manitoba Legislature, calling the emergency waiting time of 8 to 10 an hour unacceptable.
“I urge them to fix it.”
Gordon opposed the idea that the rise in COVID-19 infections was a factor in the long wait. She said a number of factors had contributed to the problem facing Winnipeg hospitals.
Hospital Floor Ideas
She said she met with Ruse on Monday and had not received a request for changes to public health orders. She suggested that hospitals are responsible for coming up with ideas to reduce waiting times.
“Sometimes they say the best ideas come from the hospital floor,” Gordon said.
Nader said in an email that he had visited a number of hospitals to better understand the situation on the ground.
Paramedics have been asked to take fewer sick patients to emergency centers instead of emergency departments to reduce stress. (Trevor Brine / CBC)
He said changes are being made to reduce waiting times. Ambulances are being asked to send fewer sick patients to emergency rooms instead of emergency departments, he said.
Dr Sean Young, chief executive of the Center for Health Sciences, told reporters on Zoom on Monday that the move would hopefully redirect dozens of patients and be done in a safe and calculated way.
In addition, COVID tests are applied to newcomers to both emergency and emergency departments, and the health region is changing the way it transfers patients to other regions and manages COVID patients sent home with oxygen.
“Whatever challenges we face, there is no doubt that the pandemic has made it extremely difficult to focus on identifying and implementing opportunities to deal with them,” Nader said in an email.
Neither Nader nor Young explicitly called on the province to reinstate any public health orders to remove pressure from emergency departments.
“I don’t think anything will do it,” Nader told reporters Monday.
He said the intake of all patients had increased by between 16 per cent and 21 per cent in recent weeks.
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