Nurse at large Canadian hospital says they’re ‘surprised more people haven’t died while waiting’

The Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg is shown on June 15, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

“It’s chaos 24/7.”

These are the words used by one nurse working at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (HSC).

The nurse, who CTV News agreed not to identify over fears of repercussions, has been working at the hospital as a triage nurse for more than 10 years.

“All shifts are kind of the same, in terms of how bad they are,” they said, adding the lack of bed space and staff is creating impossible working conditions. They say patients are coming in with all sorts of illnesses, but there is nowhere to admit them.

The nurse said there have been many times where decisions on who to admit were made solely based on a gut feeling.

“Do I put in the cancer patient who hasn’t been able to swallow for four days and is now dehydrated and looks very unwell, or do I put in the 50-year-old lady who fell who likely has blood collecting in her brain? Who do I pick?” they said.

“There’s no right answer. They are both equally as unwell, but I can only pick one. That happens all day, every day,” they added.

“It’s ethically inappropriate that these people have to wait, especially if they are very, very sick. It’s impossible to make the decision.”

As more patients come into the emergency room, the wait times only continue to increase due to the lack of space.

On Monday, the Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU), in a Facebook post, said that the average wait time at HSC at 7:05 p.m. was 11.5 hours.

The nurse we spoke to said 13 hours is somewhat normal, saying they tell patients that it’s “pretty good for us.”

“A lot of those times, the wait times soar to 24 hours,” they said. “The highest I’ve ever seen is 36 hours, waiting to see a physician.”

As more people admit themselves into the emergency room, and as the wait times soar, the nurse said the fear grows that something bad will happen.

“We have been as lucky as winning the lottery every week that people don’t die while they are waiting,” they said. “It’s completely unacceptable. It’s embarrassing that this is the health-care system.”

“Having to wait 10, 15, 20 hours because you broke your ankle is insane to me. We can’t even see the minor stuff quickly. We are fight or flight the whole time. There is just nothing we can do,” the nurse said.

Sounding the alarm

Meanwhile, MNU is raising concerns about overcrowding at HSC, calling the situation unacceptable.

In a Facebook post earlier this week, MNU President Darlene Jackson said HSC’s emergency department had been running at more than 200 per cent capacity for over a week.

She added that at one point, there were 120 active patients, saying this is “far beyond what this facility was ever designed to handle.”

Jackson said the overflow meant nurses were caring for stroke patients in hallways, while people waited several hours for treatment. She added the situation got so dire that adults were redirected to the children’s ER.

“Nurses there (HSC), and in many of our facilities across the province, are working in situations where they know they are not giving adequate care,” she said. “It is a struggle many days to give safe care, which is a shame.”

Jackson said the situation nurses are being put in is not only unfair to them but is also unfair to patients who are expecting to get the proper care they deserve.

She said one nurse told her that the situation is best described as being in the Hunger Games.

“We’re dealing with people’s lives, and we are dealing with patients’ lives, and that is stressful enough in itself, without feeling as if we are not able to provide the care that we know we need to provide,” she said.

Challenges in the health-care system: Manitoba’s health minister

Fixing the health-care system was one of the main promises for the Manitoba NDPs during the election campaign in 2023.

Earlier this month, the government said they have added 3,400 new health-care workers and 250 staffed beds across the system to increase capacity.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the Manitoba government has added 80 fully staffed beds at HSC, which is up 12 per cent in less than two years.

In a statement, the minister says patient flow continues to be a challenge across the province.

“We’re taking action to improve it. That means helping patients get the right care in the right place by strengthening community and homecare supports and creating faster ways to escalate and resolve outflow issues when they arise,” the statement reads.

“We are actively working to ensure that when patients are ready to leave the hospital, the supports they need in the community are available. When lower-acuity patients occupy beds needed for acute or surgical care, it puts added strain on the entire system.”

The minister also mentioned that the province is working with health-care partners and frontline staff to find solutions to these challenges.

But Jackson said the government isn’t doing enough.

“We are in big trouble,” she said. “It’s a lack of beds, it’s a lack of staffing and I think a lack of funding by this government to adequately fund health care to ensure that we are providing the best care possible.”

“Wait times are indeed growing, violence is escalating, and we are seeing more and more violence against frontline workers, and we are in a situation where we must get on top of this crisis,” she said.

At a breaking point

The Winnipeg nurse said they have previously considered leaving the profession.

“I was full-time for many, many years,” they said. “The pandemic was too much. The expectations were too high, and I went part-time, because I needed to work on my own terms.”

They fear if nothing is done soon, more nurses will go through with leaving.

“A lot of people have left because of the expectations and the work demand,” the nurse said. “People can’t sustain working in that environment, without having long term-effects for probably more than five years because the workload in an emergency department is astronomical.”