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‘We were fighting over a ventilator’Though clearly in need of a nursing home, there is no place for her or the others to go. They are victims of a health-care system unprepared for the demands of an aging population.Concordia’s emergency room usually has patients in the hallway, says Dr. Paul Mathers. But this holiday season, With its traditional surge of flu and pneumonia cases, was particularly brutal on the small community hospital.A week after New Year’s Day, other hospitals have started to whittle away at the crowded corridors by commandeering surgery beds or a conference room that could take a bed.Concordia reached its limit long ago. Emergency room staff say patients have missed meals or caught infections from their neighbours. A heart patient missed his medication and went into arrhythmia.Those with life-threatening conditions will get care fast, but six-hour waits for anyone else in the reception area are not uncommon, Mathers says.“On the weekend, we were fighting over a ventilator,” says nurse Lori McKay, who has never seen anything like this in her 14 years at Concordia.“People who can’t breathe die if they’re not on a ventilator. That’s an awful decision to have to make.She and Mathers say something tragic could happen soon.“It’s only a matter of time before someone ends up dying in the hall or the waiting room, Mathers says.So far, the only casualty has been confidentiality — a doctor’s pledge to respect a patient’s right to privacy, he says.Acknowledging the strain on the system, the Winnipeg Hospital Authority says it will build more nursing homes and will open beds elsewhere for the chronically ill.Mathers says those are good longterm plans, but Concordia needs a quick fix.Staff could handle the daily flow of emergency patients, which for Concordia is about 90 in a 24-hour period. But because nurses are tasked with caring for everyone in the unit, they are overworked, some on double shifts, stressed out and despairing.Mathers has about four beds for patients with emergency problems. Concordia cancelled all surgery last week because the surgical unit’s recovery room was enlisted to take the overflow. Emergency surgery patients are transferred to the Health Sciences Centre.Both beds in each of the resuscitation and trauma rooms — there ostensibly for people who are near death — are taken up by chronic-care patients, one of whom gets whisked into the hall when orders come from an ambulance in transit.Mathers says people who come for stitches, a cast or quick relief from pain must wait.Edwina Thomas, 64, came suffering with what appears to have been a kidney stone lodged in her urinary tract. She waited along with the others before finding a place in the hall.The pain was like the “worst kind of childbearing,” says Thomas, who hadfive children, including twins.The care from the staff has been wonderful, she says. But it is overwhelming to see aging people in hallways when they should be in the comfort of nursing homes, she adds. “It breaks my heart.”Jan Currie, the hospital authority official charged with resolving the crowding, says the agency is talking daily via conference calls with city hospitals to move people into appropriate beds as soon as possible.But Currie says nothing is going to be fixed overnight.As of mid-week, there were 135 admitted patients who had to be lodged in emergency rooms at the city’s six hospitals, and 55 were in hallways, Currie says. Of those 55, Concordia had 30.“They’re the smallest hospital, so they have the least ability to accommodate patients as they arrive.'’By the end of the week, a “number”PHIL HOSSACK/WINNIPEG FREE PRESSConcordia’s Dr. Paul Mathers says flu season is hard on hospital.Concordia nurse Lori McKay says the crowded conditions are unprecedented in her 14 years at the -hospital. She says the situation is so bad, medical personnel were fighting over who would get a ventilator at one point last weekend.• i. I* r• ■■*iPHIL HOSSACK/WINNIPEG FREE PRESSuof personal care home beds will be open and Concordia is first on the list for patient transfer, she says.It's the best the hospital authority can offer Concordia, Margaret Arm-bruster or Lucien Cyr, who spent his first night at Concordia on a campingcot, unearthed by a resourceful staffer Tuesday when the stretchers ran out. Rubbing his swollen knees, Cyr won- 1 ders what the government is spending y money on.“They don’t look after people right,” he whispers. '
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Fri, Jan 08, 1999
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Jay F.
CA 28 Jul 2020
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