Tories defend premier over ICU transfer timeline

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This article was published 08/03/2022 (1500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When she was health minister, Heather Stefanson was “completely unaware of the potential transfers” of ICU patients out of the province until after the first Manitoban was transferred on May 18, her successor insisted Tuesday.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon was responding to questions from the NDP about when Stefanson found out about the plan to move ICU patients out of Manitoba during the third wave of COVID-19.

As health minister, Stefanson told reporters on May 18 — the same day the first ICU patients were airlifted out of Manitoba — that the province could expand its ICU capacity to 170 beds. Despite that reassurance, overwhelmed ICUs in Winnipeg were forced to transfer 57 patients to critical-care beds in other provinces.

The NDP on Monday produced a calendar for Shared Health chief executive officer Adam Topp. It shows he had a meeting on May 13 on the topic of ICU capacity at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and had met earlier that day with Stefanson to discuss ICU capacity.

Stefanson rejected suggestions from the NDP that she had misled Manitobans about out-of-province ICU transfers being imminent. In a statement Monday, she said was only made aware of the transfers after clinicians made those decisions “in a rapidly changing environment.”

On Tuesday, Stefanson didn’t attend question period, but the NDP pressed the government to reveal which day Stefanson learned about the transfer plan.

Gordon defended the premier’s explanation that she did not know that the patient transfers were about to occur, or that there was “the potential” for them to occur.

The NDP said that defies belief.

“What the PCs are trying to argue today is that the premier, who was then the health minister, didn’t know what was happening in her portfolio during the most important phase of the pandemic,” NDP Leader Wab Kinew said after question period. “That raises a lot more questions.”

Gordon told reporters 34 people were admitted to ICU from May 13 to 17, and that prompted the need to send patients out of province on May 18. The first two patients were sent to an ICU in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Gordon said there are protocols for patient transfers, and the decision to do so is made by health professionals. “They’re not being made here in the Manitoba legislature.”

A Shared Health spokesperson said Tuesday that critical care physicians were aware of the contingency plans and capacity in Ontario. They were authorized to initiate patient transfers to provide appropriate patient care and maintain necessary local capacity.

The spokesperson did not respond to a question about when that authorization was granted.

— with files from Danielle DaSilva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca