Winnipeg nurse says 'someone will die' after Health Sciences Centre emergency experiences 30-hour waits

A nurse at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre is sounding the alarm on the situation in the hospital's adult emergency department.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, the Manitoba Nurses Union shared an email it received from a nurse who said the HSC's adult ER is "drowning" as wait times recently hit more than 30 hours and some patients were left unmonitored in hallways.

"These are practices we've never stooped to before, and to be clear, not a single nurse is comfortable with this. Someone will die unnecessarily," the post says.

There were 164 patients who sought care at HSC's adult ER over the weekend, of which 119 were seriously ill, resulting in a temporary overcapacity of the hospital's six resuscitation beds, a Shared Health spokesperson told CBC News on Monday.

Staff shortages, a lack of beds and respiratory illness season are some of the factors contributing to overwhelmed emergency rooms across the province, said Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union.

"The situation has been dire for a very long time, but it is definitely getting worse every day," Jackson told the CBC.

About 2,800 nursing positions in the province are currently vacant, Jackson said.

"It's just got to the point where it is now the nurses are saying: 'We can't sustain this any longer. This is not safe,'" she said.

What concerns Jackson the most are the patients being moved into unmonitored spots in the hospital to make room for even more critically ill patients, she said.

"I know that the nurses are absolutely sick about having to do that, because they know the care that those patients require."

Patients at the HSC's adult emergency department experienced 3.65 hour median wait times in October, which is a slight increase from 3.38 hours a year before, says data from the regional health authority.

One in 10 patients at that department waited about 13 hours in the same month, which is just over an hour longer than the year before.

In October, numbers from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority suggested wait times in the city's emergency rooms and urgent care centres were the worst they'd been in close to a decade, with 3.43-hour median waits compared to just over two hours in April 2014, the earliest point in the data — a jump of about 70 per cent.

Joey Nowlin spoke to CBC News outside of HSC on Monday afternoon. He said he had been waiting at the ER for care since 7 a.m. (CBC)

Joey Nowlin, who spoke to CBC News outside HSC on Monday afternoon, said he had been waiting at the ER since 7 a.m.

"I know the health-care system is stressed, but something has to change," Nowlin said.

"We shouldn't be suffering in pain."

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the conversion of three Winnipeg ERs into urgent care centres in the late 2010s and a $1.6-billion fiscal deficit has dealt the new NDP government a tough reality, but their main priority is to fix health care.

"The challenges we're seeing in our emergency departments right now … did not happen overnight," Asagwara told reporters at the legislature on Monday.

"It's going to take us sometime to move things in the right direction, but health-care workers and our government are working together to do just that."

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the new NDP government is dealing with a tough reality when it comes to the state of Manitoba's health care, but its main priority is to strengthen the system. (CBC)

An open letter sent to health-care workers, listening tours and a recent move to allow hospitals in Winnipeg, Selkirk and Brandon to discharge certain patients with complex needs seven days a week are some of the ways the province is looking to strengthen health care, Asagwara said.

The province is reviewing the health-care system, evaluating opportunities to improve it and continuing to invest in health-care workers, they said.

"Retention is key. It's probably our top priority."

'We cannot lose another nurse'

Jackson said she's had more conversations with Asagwara than other health ministers over the past five years, which is a good sign, but short-term solutions are direly needed to keep nurses in the system.

"They are looking to collaborate, but this is not something that's going to turn around overnight."

The staffing shortage is the biggest challenge for Manitoba's health-care system, Jackson said.

"We cannot lose another nurse out of our system. We are barely keeping our heads above water now, and losing more nurses is absolutely going to cause our system to collapse," she said.

Nurse practitioners need to be used in emergency departments and clinics to help alleviate wait times, she said. A return of nurses who left the system during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is also needed.

Jackson also hears from nurses who don't feel respected by their employers and managers, and who say they need a work-life balance to help maintain their wellness.

"They're running short, they're running below baseline, so every nurse has a bigger assignment — a higher patient load — and it's just not sustainable."