Interlake ER closures frustrate former nurse

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This article was published 18/05/2022 (855 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Diane Malcolm felt like she was having a heart attack. Then she found out there were no ER doctors available within a 100-kilometre radius.

On the night of May 7, the Lundar resident experienced stabbing, burning chest pains and shortness of breath.

The former nurse feared she was having cardiac problems and spent hours unsuccessfully trying to access emergency medical treatment in Manitoba’s Interlake region.

“At that particular time, there was no place to go,” Malcolm said.

She ultimately received treatment two days later at Selkirk hospital’s emergency department, where she learned the pain was caused by inflammation in her ribs, which can imitate the feeling of a heart attack.

Malcolm is speaking out about her experience in hopes of shining a light on the need to attract and retain more doctors in rural Manitoba, as ERs across the province continue to be overloaded.

“We have very dedicated (health) staff who are very knowledgeable, and man, if we had the doctors behind them, we’d have some great facilities. The doctors are the missing key,” she said.

The gradual, burning pain she experienced became overpowering that Saturday afternoon, and she asked her husband to take her to the ER.

Malcolm phoned the closest hospital in Eriksdale to check whether there was an ER doctor on duty. There wasn’t. Staff in Eriksdale suggested she go to Ashern, 60 kilometres north.

When she phoned Ashern, Malcolm said she was told the facility was so busy it couldn’t take new patients. Staff there suggested she go to the Stonewall hospital instead — 100 kilometres southeast of her home in Lundar.

When she phoned Stonewall, she was told to go to Eriksdale.

Malcolm went to the Eriksdale hospital, where nurses triaged her and called an ambulance.

She learned ER nurses aren’t able to conduct tests when a doctor isn’t on duty. The ambulance was supposed to take her to Ashern, but Malcolm realized that wasn’t going to happen when she was in the back of it, on a stretcher with an IV in her arm.

“We only got about five minutes out of Eriksdale and they pulled over on the side of the highway,” she said. She could hear the paramedics talking, trying to figure out where to take her. Ashern’s ER was diverting ambulances.

“I feel that they did their jobs, because they were trying to get options for me,” Malcolm said of the ambulance attendants. “I said to them, ‘You mean to tell me that right now, at this exact time — (it was just before eight) — there’s no hospital on No. 6 highway that is taking ambulances?’ And they said, ‘No, unfortunately, there isn’t.’”

The pain was constant. It had spread from under her arm to her sternum.

“It was absolutely scary; I just kept praying and I was thinking of my grandsons,” the 65-year-old said. “I have lots of living left to do with them, and that’s what I was thinking about.”

In a statement, Interlake-Eastern Health Authority CEO Marion Ellis said she couldn’t comment on an individual patient’s access to health care. The health authority advises residents to call 911 when they need to go to an ER. The health authority confirmed Ashern’s Lakeshore General Hospital had to suspend ER care on May 7.

The health authority posts ER schedules online to let residents know when doctors are available. In Eriksdale, an ER doctor will be available for only four out of 15 days in late May.

Feeling hopeless and afraid, Malcolm said she decided to go home rather than attempt the near two-hour drive to Dauphin.

“I was really scared, and I just thought, I’m going to go home, because home is my safe place,” she said. The ambulance took her back to Eriksdale and her husband took her home.

“The guys had said, ‘If you feel you need the ambulance, call.’ And I kind of joked, I said, ‘What for? You can’t go anywhere.’”

She’s now getting treatment and starting to feel better, but Malcolm said the situation could have been much worse for an elderly patient or anyone who wasn’t able to advocate for themselves.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson says Malcolm’s experience illustrates an unfortunate reality in Manitoba’s health-care system right now. Emergency departments often have to temporarily close or divert ambulances because of staff shortages, whether they’re short of physicians, nurses or technicians. ER diversions are becoming more common, and will only get worse without additional nurses and medical staff.

“There’s always this concern of, how do you let your community know that you had to close this emergency room and they need to go on to another one, especially with short notice,” Jackson said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca