’Fear mongering’ and ‘blame game’: NDP, Tories clash over Brandon ER crisis

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This article was published 21/11/2024 (342 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Political barbs were traded after the Tories released a document showing dozens of unfilled physician shifts at the Brandon hospital ER, which has been hit by a staggering staff shortage and related burnout.

“This is fear mongering at its finest,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told reporters after question period Thursday.

“It is incredibly irresponsible for the opposition to bring out a document that does not accurately represent the scheduling of that emergency department,” the health minister said as the Progressive Conservatives continued to raise concerns about ER staffing at the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

“The practise of posting that schedule is only part of how they staff that department,” Asagwara said of the chart that shows which shifts from Dec. 1 to Mar. 31 are fully staffed, partially staffed and have no coverage.

The chief medical officer for Prairie Mountain Health region said the document tabled in the legislature by Tory health critic Kathleen Cook is a “heat map.” It is created “for planning purposes and to highlight times of high need for help with (emergency department) coverage,” Dr. Adrian Fung said in an email Thursday.

“The presented ER shifts document is not an accurate representation of the schedule for the Brandon Regional Health Centre emergency department,” Fung said.

Another ER schedule obtained by the Free Press identifies doctors working from Jan. 1 to March 31 and shows 139 unfilled shifts.

It tracks with staffing concerns outlined by ER physicians and front-line hospital staff in a Nov. 6 letter to the health minister that Cook tabled in the legislature on Wednesday. It warned that the Brandon ER is on the “brink of collapse.” The letter said ER staff are “witnessing levels of burnout and exhaustion” not seen before.

“Those are the words of front-line care health professionals in our province who are are begging for help,” Cook said Thursday outside the chamber. “That’s not fear mongering… I find it reprehensible that the minister of health is accusing me of fear mongering.”

Fung, the region’s chief medical officer, admits that while they do have “challenges with staffing shortages for our emergency department, the region works tirelessly to find as much coverage as possible for open shifts.”

He said the region is also working with the doctors and the province in developing strategies to help ease the emergency department burden and to find ways to attract physicians to staff it.

“We greatly value the quality service that our physicians provide to the patients in our region, and thank them for their tireless work and collaboration with us towards finding ways to move forward,” Fung said.

Asagwara, who spoke with a Brandon ER doc Thursday morning and plans to meet with more next week, blamed the PCs for the staffing challenges there.

“The previous PC government cut the incentives that kept doctors working in that emergency department,” the health minister said.

The current Physician Services Agreement, finalized in 2023, withdrew “stabilization payments” to physicians who make annual or full-time commitments to the ER schedule.

Full-time emergency physicians who provided a minimum of 1,400 clinical hours of service within a one-year period at Brandon, Portage, Dauphin, Selkirk, Steinbach and Boundary Trails hospitals were paid an annual stabilization payment of at least $40,000.

Asagwara blamed the Tories for cutting the rural physician recruitment and retention fund.

“We’re seeing the impacts of the bad decision making play out right now.”

The recruitment and retention office the NDP set up in May is helping to solve the staffing problems, Asagwara added. They’ve successfully identified a physician to work at the Brandon ER who is “in the pipeline,” with more to come.

“I would suggest it’s going to take more than one new doctor,” said Cook, who noted that two Brandon ER physicians are set to go on maternity leave Jan. 1. She dismissed the minister’s accusation the former PC government is to blame for the current staffing crisis.

“I think Manitobans’ patience with the blame game is wearing thin. The NDP have been in government a year now.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca