Doctors at St. Boniface Hospital worry longer wait times will become the norm as ER sets record

Emergency physicians at St. Boniface Hospital said it’s frustrating to see long wait times at Manitoba’s second-largest hospital and elsewhere in the health-care system, which have become increasingly common over the past few years.

Dr. Aaron Guinn says there were 57 people waiting for care at the Winnipeg emergency department by his last shift Wednesday evening. The doctor said these numbers may have once been “unheard of,” but it wasn’t the worst day of the week for the department.

Dr. Noam Katz – who also works in the emergency department – told CBC News about 70 people were stuck in the waiting room on Monday. Some people were waiting for care for 20 hours or more without seeing any movement, he said.

Guinn said there were 75 people waiting for care that evening, which he said would be an all-time record for the hospital. The previous record of 74 was set last fall shortly after the new emergency department opened, Guinn said.

“I think even a year ago … I would have said (Wednesday) was one of the worst days we’ve ever had,” Guinn said Thursday.

“Right now, having (57) people in the waiting room sounds like a bad day to me, but not crazy.”

Doctors said the main issue with long wait times, such as earlier this week, is “access block.” Access blocks occur when emergency departments have to hold patients who would otherwise be ready to be transferred because there is no room anywhere else in the system.

Guinn said that on Wednesday evening, 52 of the 64 treatment spaces in the department were occupied by people waiting for admission to other wards, leaving emergency physicians with only a dozen beds to work with.

“We’ll try and start seeing them in non-traditional care areas like hallways, waiting rooms, because trying to do something is better than doing nothing,” he said.

“It’s horrible for patients… It’s sad to see other people in that situation too… like elderly or vulnerable people who are stuck in a hallway somewhere, waiting for a day to see a doctor.”

Doctor says, there is no new problem

Katz said access blocks are not a new problem. He pointed, among other things, to a 2024 report From the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians whose co-authors include a former St. Boniface doctor.

He said, “It’s a frog in a pot of boiling water.” “Now we say … if we’re seeing patients within 10 hours, that’s great. When you compare it to what we used to do, it’s obscene.”

Katz said decades of failure to act have discouraged many physicians. At least one colleague recently said he might opt ​​out of emergency medicine altogether, Katz said.

“If we can’t provide emergency care to patients in the emergency department, it will lead to even worse patient outcomes, including the patient deaths that we have seen,” he said.

Stacey Ross, 55, died 11 hour wait At St. Boniface Hospital in January. The death is being investigated as a serious incident. Judy Burns, 68, died in the same hospital after a few days. Burns’ family has said that their concerns were repeatedly dismissed by emergency department staff members.

The Progressive Conservatives on Wednesday called for a public inquiry into those deaths, as well as Six month old Luca Teng Another 82-year-old at HSC Children’s Hospital Genevieve Price, Who died after a long wait in Grace and St. Boniface hospitals in November.

Visit after renovation: Minister

A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said they could not confirm whether the number seen Monday was an all-time record, but said admissions have increased recently.

He said the high number of patients can be attributed in part to the severe respiratory virus season and an increase in visitors since the opening of the new emergency department.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a statement that admissions had increased by about 12 percent since then, The hospital receives more than 400 visits every month. St. Boniface has an additional internal medicine doctor to help handle the increase, Asagwara said.

Asagwara said the government has taken several measures to improve patient flow, including 36 fully furnished beds In the hospital.

Guinn said the hospital has made several changes to address emergency department waits over the years. Recently, a doctor has been assigned to assist in the triaging process, he said.

“Triage is a scary place to work as a nurse these days, especially when you have 70 people in the waiting room,” Guinn said.

St. Boniface recently became the third hospital grey-listed by manitoba nurses last year due to safety concerns.

“You’ve got two nurses out there who are alone … hopefully they’re going to somehow provide medical care to those 70 patients,” Guinn said. “It’s a joke. Like, it’s not physically possible.”

concern for expansion

A $141 million project to expand the hospital’s emergency department is expected to be finished later this year, increasing capacity.

Katz and Guinn said the modernization is making a difference in the quality of care, but they worry the extra room won’t solve the main access block issue.

When your sink clogs, the solution to fix it isn’t to build a bigger sink.– Dr. Noam Katz

“When your sink clogs, the solution to fixing it is not to build a bigger sink,” Katz said.

She said that so far, she has not heard whether there will be additional funding for nursing staff needed to prepare for the expansion in the fall.

Guinn said he fears there won’t even be additional doctors to cover the expansion, adding that the province continues to have a shortage of ER doctors despite ongoing international and domestic recruitment efforts.

“I’m worried about where we’re going,” the doctor said.

Guinn said he thinks the government is doing its best, but the situation is dire.

“I stay awake all night worrying… there will be no one to take care of my parents,” he said. “(That) there’s not going to be anything available to them.”

A WRHA spokesperson said work was ongoing to reduce waiting times in the city’s hospitals. He said that from April 2025, 10 new critical care beds and about 100 beds for medicine, surgery and mental health have been opened in the city.