Staff reassigned as flu cases overwhelm Children’s Hospital ICU

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This article was published 21/12/2023 (626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nurses have been reassigned to help ease the burden on Manitoba’s intensive-care unit for children, which is operating above capacity owing to a surge of hospitalizations caused by the flu.

Call-outs for additional staff to fill in are ongoing, Health Sciences Centre officials announced Thursday.

Twenty-two beds are operational in the unit, which typically has a capacity of 12 beds.

About 14 Health Sciences Centre staff, including 10 staff with pediatric experience and four child-health educators, have been reassigned as children’s ER visits and patient volumes are expected to get worse.

“We have not peaked yet,” said Dr. Patricia Birk, provincial specialty lead for Pediatrics and Child Health with Shared Health.

At a news conference Thursday, Birk and HSC chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young urged the public to get vaccinated and protect themselves and their children from the spread of respiratory viruses. They also thanked staff for efforts to deal with the surge of sick kids.

No pediatric surgeries have had to be cancelled because of the surge.

Birk said influenza cases are appearing most commonly in the children’s hospital.

It’s expected cases of respiratory syncytial virus will increase as well. For now, staff reassignments are doable and are being reviewed at each shift, Birk said.

“We reassess shift by shift, and so far it’s sustainable,” she said.

The daily average of children’s ER visits has increased by about 19 per cent since last month. On Thursday morning, 15 children were in the ICU, from all health regions in Manitoba, plus five young patients were receiving critical care in other areas of the hospital.

At least four had lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, influenza A or both, Shared Health said, and several others had respiratory symptoms or were suffering from another underlying health issue.

Birk said she couldn’t disclose whether any children had died from the flu this season, saying that’s personal health information that can’t be made public.

“The vast majority of children, while they come in very sick, they do recover.”

Earlier this week, a nurse told the Manitoba Nurses’ Union someone could die at the overwhelmed HSC emergency department.

“HSC’s adult ER is drowning,” the nurse told MNU. “Our wait times are exceeding 30 hours. We are now moving patients out of resuscitation — to make room for critical patients — into unmonitored hallways.

“These are practices we have never stooped to before and, to be clear, not a single nurse is comfortable with this new practice.”

The nurse added “someone will die unnecessarily. The fact no one has in the last month is a testament to the strength of our team, as well as pure luck,” according to a post the nurses’ union made on X Dec. 18.

The union and the Manitoba Health Coalition have called for a return to mask mandates in hospitals for patients and visitors. When asked Thursday if HSC would consider requiring mask use in the hospital, Birk said that decision has to be made by public health and government officials.

The hospital requires staff in in-patient units to wear masks, but hasn’t broadened the mandate.

Hospital leadership knows staff are tired, Birk said.

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“I want to acknowledge how hard our staff works, and I want to express my extreme gratitude for the staff. We have a collective vision, it’s all hands on deck.”

“It is not unusual to feel weary during this time, but I do not sense that people are unwilling to support (children in our health care system), Birk said.

Patient volumes are expected to rise this winter, and Young said he knows staff and patients’ families are stressed.

“We know that reassignments at any time can be stressful and disruptive to our staff, especially over the holiday season,” Young said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Katie May
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Katie May is a multimedia producer for the Free Press.

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