Brandon ER staff beg for reinforcements, fear for patients

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This article was published 20/11/2024 (340 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Doctors at the Brandon hospital are pleading for help from Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara to address a “dire staffing crisis” in the emergency room that has put it “on the brink of collapse.”

A letter to the minister, dated Nov. 6, and written on Prairie Mountain Health letterhead, outlines a litany of problems, including the loss of experienced nurses, extreme burnout and a high number of patients under the influence of meth who require a huge amount of resources.

“In our current conditions, we WILL experience a catastrophic outcome that could have been prevented… We are asking that you please hear our pleas for help, for the safety of our staff, patients, and community,” states the letter from staff at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, which is responsible for a large catchment area in western Manitoba.

The letter was tabled in the legislature Wednesday by Tory health critic Kathleen Cook. More than a dozen signatures were redacted, but include physicians and other health professionals, the Progressive Conservatives said.

In response, Asagwara said they’ve been working with the chief medical officer for the health region to address the staffing concerns and a meeting is planned with ER physicians and staff next week.

“We know how hard they have been working in order to meet the needs of patients and families who seek care there,” said the minister, whose “listening tour” went to the Brandon hospital earlier.

“We’ve also been doing some really targeted work through our recruitment and retention office in terms of recruiting internationally educated doctors and health-care professionals to Brandon,” Asagwara said. “We wish that we could make these things happen overnight, but unfortunately these things take sometimes a little bit of time.”

A spokesman for Prairie Mountain Health said Wednesday he wasn’t prepared to comment until he’d had a chance to speak to the medical services team.

Cook said she met with the letter writers after their calls for help weren’t answered.

“They’re very concerned about unsafe conditions in the Brandon ER… that if something isn’t done, a patient will have an adverse outcome that could be permanent,” she told reporters outside the chamber.

The letter says ER staff are “witnessing levels of burnout and exhaustion” not seen before.

In the last five years, patients who show up in the ER have increasingly complex illnesses, but the hospital doesn’t have the resources that are available in Winnipeg, it said.

“We have witnessed an explosion in illicit drug use” with patients in drug-induced psychosis from methamphetamine that require a lot of time and intense resources, the letter stated.

“They’re very concerned about unsafe conditions in the Brandon ER.”–Kathleen Cook

Adding to the problem, the ER is “hemorrhaging senior and experienced nursing staff that are integral to having a functioning emergency department.”

Nurses have resigned because of unsafe staffing levels, “constant mandating” of overtime shifts and “frankly because they can work elsewhere under much less stressful conditions for the same pay,” the letter said.

There’s a 34 per cent vacancy rate for emergency physicians that’s expected to increase to 42 per cent in January when two doctors take maternity leave. More than 40 per cent of ER shifts are filled by locums. Increasingly, ER shifts are staffed with just one physician and it’s not uncommon for multiple patients in critical condition to arrive simultaneously and during the busiest hours, the letter said.

“It is not sustainable. It is not safe.”

In question period, Premier Wab Kinew responded to questions by placing the blame for staffing shortages at the feet of the PCs, saying their cuts to health care continue to hurt the province.

The health minister said the NDP government has to do the long, hard work of restoring it.

Asagwara said they met with post-secondary health care partners just days ago “to make sure that we’re on track to get those medical seats up and running in Brandon. Everybody is keen and working together to make sure that Brandon has more doctors, more health-care professionals on the front lines,” the minister told the Free Press.

“Had the previous government focused on building capacity instead of cutting it, Brandon would be in a much better position,” Asagwara said.

The letter to the minister said their concerns had been raised with management and Doctors Manitoba and that they “don’t know where else to turn.”

“Rapid action is needed to stabilize staffing to ensure safe emergency care in Manitoba’s second-largest city.”–Doctors Manitoba

In a statement Wednesday, Doctors Manitoba said it shares their concerns and has been working with them “to escalate these concerns to regional and provincial health system leaders for over a year now.”

“The situation is critical, and rapid action is needed to stabilize staffing to ensure safe emergency care in Manitoba’s second-largest city.”

The organization that represents more than 4,000 Manitoba physicians and medical students said chronic physician shortages across the province lead to unfair workloads, with 54 per cent of physicians experiencing moral distress and 46 per cent experiencing high levels of burnout.

“The situation in Brandon ER is acute and the level of distress and burnout is likely much higher,” Doctors Manitoba said.

“High levels of distress and burnout are top predictors of physicians retiring early, reducing their hours, or moving to another province. Across Manitoba, 688 physicians, or 20 per cent of all doctors, are considering leaving the province or retiring.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca