Seven Oaks down 90 acute care beds as ER closes

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This article was published 21/07/2019 (1887 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are 128 fewer acute care beds in Winnipeg now than when the province began overhauling the health care system, a freedom of information request shows.

Seven Oaks Hospital alone is down 90 beds compared with the summer of 2017.

“When we see less beds, that means that there are less spaces for nurses, doctors, health care professionals to care for sick people in need. So if we ever want to get a handle on wait times, we are going to need to add spaces,” said Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew.

He released the data as northwest Winnipeg residents rallied to keep the Seven Oaks emergency room open on Sunday. It is scheduled to open this morning as an urgent care centre.

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“When we’re losing beds in the health-care system, it means that everybody across Winnipeg is worse off too,” Kinew said. He cited the day in June when St. Boniface Hospital had to turn away patients who didn’t have immediate health needs.

“So while there is a particular pain that is being borne by the people in northwest Winnipeg who will now have to drive farther away from home to get health care, everyone in Winnipeg should be concerned.”

Approximately two-thirds of all patients who currently seek emergency care at Seven Oaks can receive proper treatment from an urgent care centre, a provincial spokesperson said in an email Sunday.

Victoria General Hospital was the first of three emergency rooms to reopen as an urgent care centre and has seen wait times drop by 30 per cent amid a 59 per cent increase in walk-in patients, the spokesperson said.

“We know change can be difficult for some to accept and we thank front-line staff for their dedication to their patients and to the health-care system,” said Health Minister Cameron Friesen in a statement.

“The changes we are making have been successful in improving patient care and outcomes — not just in jurisdictions like Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa, but in Winnipeg as well.”

Seven Oaks is the last of three ERs in the city to close, leaving three ERs open. The change to urgent care was originally scheduled for September but was moved up. Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson previously told the Free Press the nursing vacancy rate was as high as 30 per cent at the beginning of the year.

A couple dozen people came out Sunday in a last-ditch effort to keep the ER open, holding signs that said “Stop the cuts.”

“The morale really dropped, people were worried about the patients,” said Roseanne Johnson, who retired as a unit clerk at Seven Oaks in February after nearly 30 years there.

“You can’t provide safe care… The staff cuts are just ridiculous, it’s awful.”

“The services here have been gutted, step by step by step,” said Pam Semchych, a nurse who’s also been a patient at Seven Oaks. “They’re always short of ICU beds in the city, and now there’s going to be fewer.”

Kinew pledged to reopen the emergency room at Seven Oaks if the NDP is elected to government in September.

He said the NDP’s platform will detail how much the NDP expects reversing ER closures to cost.

“That will be the quickest way that we can add more beds to our health-care system,” Kinew said.

tvanderhart@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @tessavanderhart