COVID infections driving up Winnipeg emergency wait times, WRHA CEO says | CBC News

Nader said in a press conference on Monday that admissions of all patients are up between 16 and 21 per cent over the “last little while.”

This is driving up wait times at emergency departments and urgent care wards to what he described as “concerning” levels, particularly for patients who are less sick, he said in the email.

Patients are also staying longer in emergency and urgent-care departments while they are waiting for COVID tests, he added. 

Sick time for hospital staff is now at historic highs, he said, partly because some staff are off work with symptoms or confirmed cases of COVID-19.

“COVID is continuing to spread throughout the community. This is leading to a higher-than-normal increase in COVID-positive medicine patients and is creating additional pressure,” Nader said to staff via email on Friday evening.

“We are now seeing patients, who have avoided seeking care initially during the pandemic, are generally sicker upon presentation. As a result, they are requiring more and longer medical care.”

Previous attempts to redirect patients from emergency departments and ICUs in Winnipeg to less busy care facilities have been significantly impacted by weather events, Nader said, which has also added to strain on the system.

Nader’s statement contradicts repeated statements made by Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Brent Roussin and Premier Heather Stefanson, who have described COVID hospitalizations as incidental.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Monday she is concerned about long wait times at emergency departments but said there are no plans to amend public health orders to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

“I’m very concerned about the wait times and the number of individuals who have to wait long times,” Gordon told reporters at the Manitoba legislative building, calling emergency wait times of eight to 10 hours unacceptable.

“I’m insisting that they fix it.”

Gordon pushed back against the notion a rise in COVID-19 infections is a factor in the long wait times. She said a number of factors have contributed to the issue facing Winnipeg hospitals.

Ideas ‘from the hospital floor’

She said she met with Roussin Monday and received no request for changes to public health orders. She suggested hospitals are responsible for coming up with ideas to reduce wait times.

“Sometimes they say the best ideas come from the hospital floor,” Gordon said.

Nader said in his email he visited a number of hospitals to gain a better understanding of the situation on the ground.

He said changes are being made to reduce wait times. Ambulances are being asked to send less sick patients to urgent care facilities instead of emergency departments, he said. 

Dr. Shawn Young, the CEO of Health Sciences Centre, says the move will hopefully redirect dozens of patients, and will be done in a safe and calculated way.

COVID tests are being administered to new arrivals at both urgent care and emergency departments and the health region is changing the way it transfers patients to other regions and manages COVID patients sent home with oxygen.

“Whatever the challenges we might face, there is no question that the pandemic has frankly made it exponentially harder to focus on identifying and implementing opportunities to address them,” Nader said in his email.

Neither Nader nor Young explicitly called on the province to reinstate any public health orders to take pressure off of emergency departments.

“I don’t think any one thing is going to address that,” Nader said.