WRHA directs three care homes to accommodate surge of hospital patients

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has directed three long-term care centres to make space for hospital patients, citing “exceptionally high demand for care across the health-care system.”

“Riverview Health Centre, Deer Lodge Centre and Misericordia Health Centre have been asked to identify additional temporary capacity for patients who no longer require an acute-care hospital bed but continue to need an appropriate level of care before they can transition to their next care setting,” a WRHA spokesperson told the Free Press Thursday.

“This whole-of-system response will help create additional capacity in acute-care hospitals, supporting patient flow and timely access to emergency departments and other hospital services.”

The spokesperson described the measures as part of “standard surge protocol,” atypical and temporary, but did not provide a timeline of how long patients would be staying at the health-care centres.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province is experiencing an unusual surge in hospitalizations this summer.

“The 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,” Asagwara said.

“And what we’re seeing, actually, is that there’s a demand that we really haven’t seen before during the summer, which is obviously a concern. “

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.

Asagwara called the WRHA’s plan “a responsible response to unprecedented volumes.”

“What we know is that we would be in 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,” the minister said, pointing to new transitional beds opened under the NDP government.

“But 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.”

The three long-term care facilities are already struggling with a large number of patients, said Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson, and she’s concerned staff won’t be able to handle more.

“Where are you going to get the extra staff to staff these beds that you want to open?” she said Friday. “That 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?”

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’re ready to be moved, rather than having to wait several weeks.

“What this tells me is it’s just shuffling patients out of the hospital into another bed without actually dealing with the root cause of the wait times in emergency,” she said.

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.

She suggested the patient shuffle could be “political” in nature.

“We are heading into an election year next year, and so I think this is an attempt to try and look like we’re fixing health care when really we’re not dealing with the root cause of what’s happening at all,” she said.

“It’s basically a shell game, moving patients from bed to bed.”

Progressive Conservative health Critic Kathleen Cook said the statement provided by the WRHA “fails to give patients, families or health-care workers any reassurance that the underlying problems are being addressed.”

“The crisis in Manitoba’s 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 — and help keep Manitobans out of the ER in the first place,” Cook said in an email.

“Until then, Manitoba patients and front-line staff will continue to scramble, as they are being asked to do today.”

Manitoba Health Coalition provincial director Noah Schulz called the situation “a sad state of affairs.”

“This 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’re appropriately trained to handle,” he said.

“It’s a real concern, and I think a consequence of a neglected and underfunded health-care system.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca