‘Disgusted’ nurse blames health authority for frenzied Flin Flon hospital evacuation

A Flin Flon nurse says she’s “disgusted” with the Northern Health Region after the frantic scramble to evacuate patients Wednesday as wildfires closed in on the city.

“Every step of the way, we had to find a new problem and figure it out in immediate time,” said the licensed practical nurse, who works at Flin Flon General Hospital and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.

“I was so incredibly proud of the nurses and my manager, a nurse herself. But I am disgusted — and I speak on behalf of every nurse who was there at the hospital — to work for the Northern Health Region.”

The nurse, who evacuated to Dauphin late Wednesday, accuses the health authority of being unprepared for the complex evacuation, which included patients from Saskatchewan. She said the hospital failed to enact its disaster management plan, leading to nurses being thrust into roles they wouldn’t normally do.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara thanked staff for the efforts Thursday, noting the rapidly changing situation.

“In a crisis, it’s going to feel like a crisis,” Asagwara said. “I can tell you definitively that the emergency plan was enacted. I can tell you that there are very strict protocols that must be actioned once an evacuation order is declared by a municipality.”

Asagwara said all teams were working around the clock “minute-to-minute” to evaluate the situation and determine the next step with firefighters and wildlife experts.

The minister said 19 health-care staff worked throughout the night, including CEO Raj Sewda.

A spokesperson for Shared Health echoed the minister’s comments.

“The evacuation in the north was the biggest the province has seen, and is a true testament to the remarkable abilities and dedication of staff and teams across the province, when their help was needed more than ever,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We can never thank you all enough. So, we thank you again.”

The nurse said staff were told Tuesday an evacuation wasn’t likely for 48 hours.

“An hour later… we were told we were already starting to begin evacuating patients,” she said.

Thirty-one patients had to be evacuated, and the nurse said someone with the health authority had arranged for other hospitals to take them.

“But that’s where the support more or less stopped,” she said.

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said the situation changed quickly.

“For the nurses, it was very scary. It was almost triple jeopardy. They were concerned and worried about getting their patients and residents safely evacuated. For most of those nurses, they have families that were also evacuated ahead of them. And then the nurses had their own concerns about their own safety and getting out.”

The nurse said when she arrived at the hospital for her shift early Wednesday, she was told they had been waiting 12 hours for the first plane to arrive.

That flight didn’t leave until about 3 p.m. — nearly 24 hours after staff were told to begin the evacuation process. The last patients were removed Thursday morning. In total, 71 patients were moved, mostly to Winnipeg and some to Saskatchewan.

“We had families calling. We had everybody calling, patients panicking, and there was absolutely no direction from senior leadership,” the nurse said.

The nurse said her manager scrambled to get food and coffee for exhausted colleagues while pleading with higher-ups to speed up the arrival of evacuation planes.

The planes arrived in rapid succession, the nurse said, leading to more chaos.

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“We very quickly started to lose control of the situation,” the nurse said. “And one nurse, who should have never been put in this situation, took charge.”

By 5 p.m., 22 patients were still waiting to be flown out, and nurses learned that dietary staff had been told to leave, leaving staff locked out of the kitchen and patients without food, she said.

On Thursday, displaced nurses were dealing with the fallout of being driven from their jobs, including how they’ll pay their bills if they’re away from work for an extended period.

“Many, many nurses are concerned about financial well-being now that the personal threat is over,” she said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.