St. Boniface Hospital emergency room is 'at and over capacity', Doctors Manitoba says

Manitoba's health care system continues to struggle as stressors such as staff shortages and COVID-19 cases strain staff.

Dr. Kristjan Thompson, president of Doctors Manitoba and an ER doctor at St. Boniface Hospital, said as of Wednesday afternoon 47 out of the 55 ER beds are being used by people waiting for a hospital bed.

He said an admitted patient has been waiting 162 hours to leave the ER and go upstairs.

“That leaves you eight beds to run the second-busiest ER in Manitoba,” Thompson said in an interview. ‘’To say that our ERs are filled to the brim, at and over capacity, is really an understatement.”

The number of doctors at home because of COVID-19 has doubled this week to 55 doctors.

Thompson said while hospital statistics might seem scary – he wants people to seek medical care when needed.

‘’We are never going to close our doors and we are always here for you. Do not put your health on hold.”

George Kroupa’s father-in-law had a stroke in November, but a later infection brought him back to the hospital. Not long after, he was sent from Winnipeg to Roblin Health Centre but did not improve.

"When I asked the doctors and the nurses they said, 'Well, yeah he is getting worse,'” Kroupa said in an interview with CTV News. “We can't really help him here so we are going to try to reach out to other places where they can take him."

His father-in-law has been in Roblin for two months.

Shared Health said there are 69 patients receiving care outside of their communities as part of shared health’s inter-region protocols.

“While inter-region transfers have paused for the moment, they very much remain a strategy that will be utilized as needed to ensure ongoing capacity remains within medicine units across Manitoba to accept new admissions,” a statement emailed to CTV News from Shared Health said.

The president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, Darlene Jackson, said she wouldn’t be surprised if there are more hospital transfers in the future.

“You talk to nurses and what they say is five years ago I could never ever imagine giving care to this number of patients and this sick of patients by myself,” Jackson said in an interview with CTV News.