Winnipeg ER wait times holding steady, but more work needs to be done: WRHA
Winnipeg’s health authority says emergency department wait times are moving in the right direction, but more work is needed for them to continue to come down.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) released wait time data for urgent care centres and emergency departments in April. For Winnipeg, the median time for patients waiting to be seen sat at 2.87 hours, an increase of approximately four minutes from March.
The WRHA said several new initiatives have been ongoing to help reduce wait times, including an increase in moving alternative level of care patients from hospitals to long-term care centres and moving patients who live outside of Winnipeg to sites in their home health region.
“We have seen a steady drop in the number of alternate level of care patients over the past month,” said Mike Nader, WRHA CEO, saying earlier in the week the number reached a low of 98 patients in Winnipeg. The daily average of alternate level of care patients in April was 151.
Nader added Winnipeg was also able to repatriate 162 patients to sites in their home region so far this month, up from 139 in April.
Despite the successes, Dr. Shawn Young, chief operating officer with Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, said it will still take time for wait times to come down.
“The bad news is these patient flow issues didn't materialize overnight, and they unfortunately won't be resolved overnight either,” he said. “These are long-standing issues that existed for years and were made exponentially worse by the pandemic.”
Young added staffing has been a challenge in recent months.
“We only at the end of April got all of our redeployed and reassigned staff back to their regular work,” he said. “So that's only been less than a month that we've actually got our staff doing the work that they normally do.”
The WRHA said it is hoping the initiatives will begin to show more of an impact on wait times next month.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Breast cancer screening should start at age 40, Canadian Cancer Society says
The Canadian Cancer Society says all provinces and territories should lower the starting age for breast cancer screening to 40.
DEVELOPING Live updates as Stormy Daniels testifies at Trump hush money trial
Adult film star Stormy Daniels is on the stand a second time Thursday as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s hush money case continues in Manhattan. Follow live updates here.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Canadian-Israeli man shot dead in Egypt; claim links killing to Gaza
A Canadian man 'of Jewish Israeli descent' has been shot dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a suspected criminal case, a security source said, while a previously unknown militant group said it carried out the attack in reaction to the war in Gaza.
Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
Ontario man frustrated after $3,500 paving job leaves driveway in shambles
An Ontario man considering having his driveway paved received a quote from a company for $7,000, but then, another paver in the neighbourhood knocked on his door and offered half that rate.
Why these immigrants to Canada say they're thinking about leaving, or have already moved on
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
BREAKING Sheldon Keefe out as head coach of Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired head coach Sheldon Keefe. The team made the announcement Thursday after the Original Six franchise lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Boeing 737 catches fire and skids off the runway at a Senegal airport, injuring 10 people
A Boeing 737-300 plane carrying 85 people skidded off a runway at the airport in Dakar, Senegal's capital, injuring 10 people, according to the transport minister, an airline safety group and footage from a passenger that showed the aircraft on fire.