An Interlake woman is speaking out about a harrowing trip to the emergency room in the hopes her experience helps prevents a tragedy.
Penny-Anne Wainwright was visiting a farm for work Monday about 10 kilometres from Arborg, when she was mauled by a dog. She sustained injuries on her hand and thigh.
In shock and bleeding, she got a ride to an Arborg emergency room. Wainwright said upon arrival, she was told there were no doctors on site, and under the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority's policy of nurse-managed care, a nurse was required to telephone the on-call doctor in Selkirk to get instructions and proceed with her care.
Wainwright said she watched her wounds swell. She waited at least 90 minutes in serious pain before checking herself out of the hospital. She said to her knowledge, the doctor never called with instructions.
Wainwright said she was prepared to see a doctor in Eriksdale or Ashern, but was told they had no doctors working at those hospitals either.
She ended up calling her family doctor in Lundar who told her despite the information from nurses, there was in fact a doctor in Ashern. She said it took more than 5 hours to receive emergency care, but when she arrived in Ashern, she was well taken care of.
The Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority has been in touch with Wainwright and tells CTV News that Wainwright's experience was an unfortunate incident. It said it's working to improve emergency care and ensure situations like Wainwright's don't happen again.
The RHA said nurse managed care was adopted in 2013 as a short term solution to doctor shortages in the region, and change is coming.
Changes to nurse managed care coming
“Right now, we are in consultation with physicians and will be for the next few weeks to determine our exit strategy from nurse managed care. Until we have reached an agreement with physicians in our region and communicated that plan to staff and communities, there will be no change in the delivery of our emergency department services,” said CEO Ron Van Denakker.
In an April 28 news release, the RHA said it is "working in consultation with physicians and staff over the next few weeks to have resources in place to support emergency services this summer. Recently, physicians providing emergency room coverage in Interlake-Eastern RHA outlined their intent to withdraw support for nurse managed care effective May 1," the release stated.
