'It's been getting worse': Winnipeg hospitals have longest ER stays in the country

Manitobans are spending more time in emergency rooms compared to any other province in Canada and longer than five years ago according to new data.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) said Manitobans are in the ER for 13 to 19 hours.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
• Sign up now for daily CTV News Winnipeg newsletters

"Manitoba is not unlike Canada as a whole, where over the last few years, length of stays has been increasing," said Nicole Loreti, a program lead for CIHI.

The data showed nine out of 10 lower acuity patients were seen and discharged within 19.1 hours. It also showed nine of out of 10 higher acuity patients who were eventually sent home were at the ED for 12.7 or less.  

The report captured emergency department metrics on visits and lenths of stay from April 2023 to March 2024.

Prior to the pandemic, most Manitobans spent about seven to 11 hours in ERs before being sent home.

This week's report also showed median length of stay ranged from 4.4 to 6.6 hours for patients who were sent home and 21.7 hours for someone who was admitted.

"It's been getting worse, year-over-year, since the pandemic. So prior to 2019, wait times were much better. Since the pandemic, we've been really challenged with those wait times," said Dr. Shawn Young, the COO of the Health Sciences Centre (HSC).

He said the combination of loss of staff mixed with taking time to fill positions is to blame, noting the emergency room situation is like a canary in the coal mine.

"It's about dealing with the ventilation in the coal mine more than it is about putting more canaries down there."

• Top health headlines, all in one place

Leadership is having to get creative while waiting for longer-term fixes like graduating nurses and doctors.

One of those creative stop gaps is the HSC minor treatment clinic.

"The patients that we (filter) from the emergency department that are presenting there, that we then see in the minor treatment clinic, are seen in about a third of the amount of time that they would be seen if they were staying in the emergency department," said Dr. Manon Pelletier, the chief medical officer at HSC.

Shared Health said the clinic has seen more than 7,000 patients in a year and the wait time has been around two hours.

However, for people like Tessa Dubois who went to the HSC ER for mental health care, that clinic isn't helping.

"It's ridiculous. There's too many people. Not enough doctors," she said. "You got people coming in and out with bad problems like heart attacks…then you got other people who have mental health problems and literally it's broken. The system is broken."

The data is only for time spent in Winnipeg hospital ERs as CIHI said rural health authorities don't share their data with them.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in an emailed statement to CTV News Winnipeg, that fixing the health-care system is the government's number one priority.

"While it's much easier to close a bed than to open a bed, our government got to work right away on addressing ER conditions," they said.

"We know that staff shortages are a key component to reducing patients’ length of stay in ERs. That’s why our government is meeting with, and listening to, frontline staff across the province and changing the culture in health care. Our plan to hire 1000 new health care workers this year is well underway. We know there is still a lot to do, and we are working hard every day to fix healthcare in Manitoba."