WINNIPEG -- Hundreds of protesters called on the government of Manitoba to save Concordia Hospital’s emergency room Wednesday.
The emergency room at Winnipeg’s Concordia Hospital could close as early as June as part of the province’s health care transformation.
But union leaders, opposition MLAs, hospital workers, and some community members are hopeful they can keep it open.
Bob Almaro has been a health care aide at the hospital for more than two decades, with most of that time in the emergency ward.
“It was heartbreaking, it still is. I don’t know, I’ve been here for 20 plus years, seeing it shut down is going to be hard for a lot of us,” he said.
The people at the rally hope the government will change its plan.
Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union is one of them.
“We’re always hopeful that this government will sort of sit up and take notice,” she said.
Last week the province announced it’s doing a short term external review of the health care overhaul plan before moving forward.
However, health minister Cameron Friesen said the closure of the three emergency rooms, including the one at Concordia, will go ahead as planned.
“There’s more and more evidence that we’re on the right track,” he said.
Friesen said the consolidation efforts will help put patients first.
“Their government is working hard every single day to make sure that the outcomes and patient experience and wait times will be not just acceptable but better and better,” he said.
Almaro isn’t sure about that.
"We're going to be pretty much cutoff from the rest of the city,” he said.
Friesen said he’ll announce the results of the review and next steps within the next two weeks.
- With files from CTV's Jeff Keele
