With Winnipeg hospitals crammed, NDP blames dwindling number of ICU beds for patient crunch

As Winnipeg grapples with a swarm of patients cramming hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centres, the Opposition New Democrats say a shrinking number of intensive care beds in use is part of the reason for the crunch.

NDP Leader Wab Kinewsaid Wednesdaya documentobtained through a freedom of information request shows the number of available ICU beds in Winnipeg has steadily fallen, from73 beds in January2017 to 63 beds last July.

On Tuesday, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority saidit currently has onlyenough employees to care forpatients in 58 of those 63 beds.

"We know that that is below capacity," Kinew said. "That is fewer beds than are needed to take care of the patients out there who arevery, very sick."

His proof, he said, is patientsbeing transferred to Brandon because Winnipeg's health-care system is overwhelmed.

ButVickie Kaminski, the health authority's new CEO, said on Tuesday she was only aware ofone such transfersince a post-Boxing Day spike in patient volumes at Winnipeg hospitals.

The health authority later said in a statement that patient transfersdon't happen frequently, but are sometimes necessary to ensure patients are cared for.

Focus on bottom-line, NDP allege

"Manitoba patients aren't getting the care that they need,"Kinew said, laying the blame onthe Tories' reformof the province's health-care system, which included converting three Winnipeg emergency rooms into urgent care centres.

"It's simply because we have a Conservative government that wants to save money and cut the health-care system we all rely on."

The NDP's document came to light a day after Winnipeg's health authority said city ERs andurgent care centres are currently seeingaround 1,000 patients a day due to a spike in viruses an average increaseof about 120 patients per day over the post-Boxing Day period last year.

But theWHRAsaidthe decline in the number of ICU beds which is for critically ill patients who need consistent monitoring is intentional.

Since 2017, thehealth authority has added more beds specifically for cardiac patients requiring intensive care, as well as more high-observation beds and a new category of intermediate beds, which previously didn't exist.

"Historical trends of the usage of these beds showed a number of patients who did not require full ICU-level, one-to-one care, but who would require the services" of one of the other types of beds, WRHA chief health operations officerKrista Williamssaid in a statement.

Thehealth authoritysaidthere are currently107beds in Winnipeg for the most seriously ill patients, which includes63intensive care beds. There were 113 of those beds in January 2019 and 101in January 2018.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen said the beds for the most ill patients has been reorganized in a "more intelligent way."

"Meanwhile, work continues to strengthen the system," he said in a statement. "Thirty-three nurses will graduate from the critical care program next month and are expected to work in critical care units at [Health Sciences Centre], St. Boniface and the Grace."

On Tuesday,Kaminskisaid the issue of overcapacity in critical care units was brought up by doctors a few months ago.

"They asked us to look at what was happening in critical care and what they were seeing as a troubling trend," she said.

"We're doing a formal review of our ICU capacity so that we knowwhether what we've got is going to match the volumes that they can predict."

Until then, the WRHA is working diligently to staff thevacant ICU beds, primarily with nurses,Kaminskisaid.

Specialized care needed

NDP health critic UzomaAsagwaradoesn't buythe explanation that other types of beds are making up for previous ICU beds.

"The kinds of patients that are in those beds those are very sick patients and they're often patients whose level of acute sickness can change on any given day, any given hour, and you need specialized staff and nurses who can attend to those changes and those needs," Asagwarasaid.

"When you talk aboutplacing people in other beds and making other accommodations, what you're saying is that you're putting your bottom dollar ahead of best practice in patient care and safety."