A patient’s death in a Winnipeg ER hallway last week has caused “moral distress” for staff and continues to raise questions among politicians.

The man’s death at Health Sciences Centre overnight Feb. 27 is under internal review as part of a potential critical incident investigation. He died while waiting in an EMS hallway about an hour after being brought in by ambulance.

The ER was overcrowded at the time, and between 30 to 40 patients were waiting for a hospital bed, according to staff who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Staff are still dealing the death, even after a scheduled debriefing session (called a critical incident stress management meeting), an HSC ER nurse said Wednesday.

“Now, just over a week after the incident, our staff is suffering with the ridiculous moral distress, but there has been no further commentary from leadership,” the nurse said. “We have no idea what, if any, actions are being taken to prevent further incidents from occurring.”

On March 2, just before holding a news conference to address the patient’s death publicly for the first time, HSC leaders sent a mass email to staff acknowledging these “difficult days.”

The message from management came after senior nurses called for a response and expressed their anger and devastation over the man’s death, attributing it to “chaos” in the emergency department that was beyond their control, according to emails obtained by the Free Press.

Management told staff they couldn’t share details about the patient’s case pending the investigation, but thanked them for their work.

“We want you to know that we see your efforts and we hear your concerns. You are doing everything possible to support excellent patient care. We know that, your co-workers know that, and the patients in our care feel that as well,” HSC management stated in the email. “We share your frustrations with the access block that is limiting our ability to move patients through our facility and impacting patient waits for care.”

The email was signed by HSC chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young, executive director of acute inpatient services Jennifer Cumpsty, business and finance lead Amanda Dowbenko, site medical lead Dr. Manon Pelletier, and executive director of ambulatory care Jennifer Spencer.

In the Manitoba legislature, the incident spurred comparisons to the 2008 death of Brian Sinclair, an Indigenous man who waited in HSC’s ER for 34 hours before his death.

On Tuesday, Liberal and NDP members continued to question the government about its response to last week’s death. In reply, Premier Heather Stefanson and Health Minister Audrey Gordon refused to provide any details and accused the opposition of politicizing the event.

Cindy Lamoureux, Liberal MLA for Tyndall Park, invoked the Sinclair inquiry as she described last week’s death as a “tragedy.”

“I do not understand why it would appear as though nothing has changed in 15 years,” Lamoureux said in the legislature Tuesday.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew called for an independent investigation.

Stefanson said the government will “respect the process” for the current internal review: “The chamber of the Manitoba legislature is no place to be having discussions about individual cases.”

On Tuesday, Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont tabled documents related to the recommendations from the Sinclair inquiry.

“Last June, three HSC ER nurses cited Mr. Sinclair when they warned that it was only a matter of time till someone died. Why didn’t we learn from this?” Lamont said.

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“My question,” he later added, “is not how could you let this happen? It’s how could you let this happen again?”

Last summer, nurses spoke to the Free Press about fears someone would die on their watch amid under-staffing, overcrowding, and unsafe expectations placed on ER staff.

A nurse who was working the night the man died last week said staff have been raising those concerns to hospital executives since spring 2022, and brought up the same patient-safety issues during a meeting with the health minister in the fall.

“Nurses have done their best to address the patient safety concerns and have brought them up to anyone who has the power to change things, and nothing has been done,” the nurse said.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com

Katie May
Reporter

Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.

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