WRHA preps changes

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This article was published 26/09/2017 (2944 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) launched a full-court press this week, as it prepares to roll out Phase 1 of its controversial overhaul to health-care delivery.

Misericordia Health Centre’s urgent care clinic will formally be shuttered at 8 p.m. on Oct. 2, while the Victoria General Hospital emergency department will downgrade to an urgent care centre at 8 a.m. the following morning.

Additional staff have been put in place to help keep confusion to a minimum as October transitions proceed, the WRHA said.

“Big change in health care is really difficult and we did not undertake this lightly, but it was clear that change was, and change is, necessary,” Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen told a crowd at St. Boniface Hospital.

“Over the past six months, significant planning, investment, trials and revisions have gone into ensuring that transformation is as seamless as possible.”

Multiple senior WRHA officials, as well as Dr. David Peachey — author of the consolidation report being used as the primary guide for the overhaul — joined the minister for Tuesday’s news conference.

As for staffing, the WRHA’s senior labour-relations counsel, Karlee Blatz, spoke positively about the process thus far. Despite rotation changes, she said 81 per cent of the 219 nurses at Victoria who received deletion notices have decided to stay with their current departments, while 93 per cent of the 219 affected at Grace Hospital have chosen to stay.

At both facilities, the nurses who chose not to stay with their departments have had an opportunity to apply for new jobs: 39 were posted at Grace, 57 at Victoria.

The selection process for support workers at St. Boniface, Grace and Victoria hospitals are underway this week, and the process will begin shortly for nurses at Health Sciences Centre, Blatz said.

Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, didn’t share Blatz’s rosy view.

At Victoria hospital, the concern is some nurses may have felt compelled to stick with the position offered to them out of concern they might not land a job they want elsewhere, she said.

“They don’t have the same choices as other nurses in the system just because of the way that facility is changing,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

Victoria is transitioning to a more community-based role focused on geriatrics and mental-health care. Construction on a consolidated mental-health care unit is expected to last into next year.

“Those nurses would be concerned (about) what the end result would be, so some may have chosen because of that,” Mowat said.

With one week to go before the changes begin in earnest, her concern is on ensuring patients not only have access to the care they need, but that they know where to go to get it, she said.

Ryan Sneath, assistant chief of paramedic operations for the City of Winnipeg, sought to allay some of those concerns.

While some patients who take ambulances with minor conditions will likely see a five- to 10-minute increase in transportation times, he noted those with serious conditions will not be impacted because paramedics have always transported those patients to the correct facility. For instance, people with cardiac issues have always gone to St. Boniface, even if the Concordia Hospital ER was closer, and they will continue to go there, he said.

“We expect that the system will work better for patients, will give them more access to quick and timely care,” Goertzen said.

But NDP Leader Wab Kinew said it doesn’t make sense ER wait times will improve with fewer emergency rooms. He said it’s clear Manitobans are rejecting the reforms the provincial Conservative government is pushing.

“(Premier) Brian Pallister would have you believe that ER wait times are going to get better by having fewer ERs, that your health care is going to improve when there are less health-care professionals working at your bedside, and that you’re going to get care more quickly after you have to drive further,” he said.

— with files from Larry Kusch

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca