More patients leaving HSC ER without seeing doctor: Shared Health
Hundreds of patients are walking out of the Health Sciences Centre (HSC)'s emergency room every month without seeing a doctor, according to new statistics.
Shared Health says more than 30 per cent of patients who visited the ER in July left before receiving treatment. Statistics show those numbers have been going up every month since spring.
A total of 1,302 patients left in May. In June that number went up to 1,305, and the increase continued into July with 1,395 patients leaving the ER without receiving treatment.
Darlene Jackson with the Manitoba Nurse's Union says wait times are driving patients away as the system deals with staff shortages and backlogs. "We're seeing wait times that are skyrocketing," said Jackson. "There just aren't enough bodies in health care to manage all of our patients."
HSC chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young says the number of people leaving without being seen by a doctor is concerning. "The staffing shortages alone have been a big driver of why we can't move patients through the system very effectively," he said.
Young adds that beds are filling up with admitted patients in the ER, causing a backlog. As well, the system as a whole lost staff during the pandemic.
Young says patients with non-emergency cases are still ending in up emergency rooms or urgent care hospitals, when they should be going to access centres, walk-in clinics or their own doctor instead.
"We need to actually re-create or revisit what we're doing with our care pathways," said Young. "We can't keep sending people to emergency departments for care, we have to be much more strategic."
Shared Health says nurse recruitment and retention efforts are ongoing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.