Patient transfer targets set to make room for COVID cases

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This article was published 16/12/2021 (1558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hospitals in Winnipeg and the Interlake region are being told to ramp up patient transfers to facilities in rural Manitoba to free up beds amid rising COVID-19 case counts.

Shared Health, the provincial health authority, has set transfer targets hospitals in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority must meet in response to increased demand.

A spokesman for Shared Health said the target number of patients selected for a move will vary, but up to 45 people are to be shipped out of Winnipeg and another 10 are to be transferred out of the Interlake each week.

“Inter-regional patient transfers are a direct response to increasing volumes of COVID-19 patients, and are a safe and necessary measure to maximize our system’s ability to care for patients both now and in the coming weeks,” the spokesman said Thursday in a statement. “If required, these transfers will make a significant improvement to patient flow.”

According to Shared Health, the primary candidates for transfers outside of their home region are seniors waiting for a bed in a personal care home and other stable patients receiving “ongoing medical interventions.”

Patients that do not meet the transfer criteria will not be moved, and eight have been transferred this week, the spokesman said.

The pandemic-era transfer policy was first introduced in October and 87 people have been sent out of Winnipeg or the Interlake, often to Southern Health or Prairie Mountain, to date. Some Winnipeg patients have been transferred more than 700 kilometres northwest to Flin Flon.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon defended the protocol earlier this week, saying a provincial approach to patient flow is necessary to continue to provide surgeries and other care for Manitobans at high-acuity facilities.

However, increased demand for patient transfers will threaten patient safety and reduce the availability of rural paramedics to respond to emergency situations, said Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Bob Moroz.

“Our rural paramedics as a group are already in a deep, deep staffing crisis. We already know that the number of ambulances that are out of service due to staff shortages are absolutely spiking,” Moroz said Thursday in an interview with the Free Press.

According to the union president, rural ambulances are being placed out of service with greater frequency due to staff shortages and, in recent months, there’s been a spike in the number of hours ambulances are idle as staff reach the “end of their rope.”

As it stands, Moroz said there are not enough paramedics in the system to safely increase patient transfer volumes above current levels.

Paramedics and transfer teams are already working 12-hour shifts and any new demand would lead to significant burn out, Moroz said.

“We’re anticipating a whole lot of overtime being demanded out of our paramedics, which is already through the roof and it’s exhausting,” he said. “What’s going to continue to happen is that more and more demands will be placed on our members and, for the most part, they’re going to step up and do it to their peril.”

Moroz said the provincial government has ignored the association’s calls to address chronic staffing shortages and fears the situation will continue to deteriorate if vacancies are not addressed.

“The stress and the strain and the sheer amount of overtime that we’re asking these folks to do is taxing enough,” Moroz said. “It is so tough on them, and how do you say no? There is a crisis in the province.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca