Manitoba woman worried about impact to rural care due to patient transfers

WINNIPEG -

A Manitoba woman is concerned with a provincial decision to transfer patients out of Winnipeg to rural hospitals, saying it is impacting the care area residents are receiving.

Deb Bauche, who lives in a rural area outside of Boissevain, Man., brought her husband to the hospital in Boissevain Tuesday morning for treatment for a medical condition. She says this is not unusual for them, as it has happened before.

“We take him to Boissevain, and our family doctor admits him, replenishes his IV, and gives him morphine and stuff for pain,” Bauche said.

However, when she took her husband to the hospital, Bauche said he was admitted but there were no beds available at the Boissevain hospital. She said they were in use from patients from Winnipeg that had been transferred.

“When I left, he was still in the emergency room, and they were doing their best to find a bed so they could admit him,” Bauche said.

She said her husband was receiving care when she left, but he would be in the hallway until a bed was available.

Bauche, a retired nurse, said the Boissevain hospital already has limited staff. She is worried local patients, like her husband, won’t get the best care they can under the province and Shared Health’s initiative regarding patient transfers.

“They don't care that there are people in these rural communities who now can't get a bed and be taken care of by their own family physician familiar with their case,” she said.

Another hospital is one hour away from their home, but taking her husband there is something Bauche doesn’t want to do.

“I want him to be with his family physician, because he knows my husband has a health condition and the doctor now knows how to take care of it,” she said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Shared Health said facilities outside of Winnipeg continue to have capacity to admit patients both directly and through the inter-region transfer protocol.

“Those whose care needs require admission to a health care facility are being admitted to the most appropriate facility able to care for their health needs,” the statement reads.

“As Manitoba continues to manage the significant challenges that Omicron is placing on our health system, we recognize patient flow challenges can impact the length of time that some admitted patients wait in emergency departments.”

Shared Health said since October, 242 stable patients have been transferred outside of the health region they are being cared for as part of the inter-regional patient transfer protocol. This includes 13 in the past day and 35 in the past week.

In the interim, Bauche said she wants to see an increase in vaccinations in Manitoba and vaccine mandates to help ease the burden on hospitals.

-With files from CTV’s Devon McKendrick and Jeff Keele.