A middle-aged man passed away while waiting for treatment at the emergency room of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (HSC) on Tuesday morning, hospital officials have confirmed.
HSC Chief Operating Officer Dr. Shawn Young stated that the patient was classified as low-acuity and had experienced a prolonged wait in the ER. While the specific medical emergency leading to his death remains undisclosed due to patient privacy laws, Young noted that low-acuity patients in the 90th percentile of wait times can face delays exceeding 10 hours.
The patient arrived by ambulance shortly after midnight and underwent initial triage and assessments. Around 8 a.m., his condition deteriorated, prompting a transfer to a resuscitation room. Despite efforts, he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
The hospital has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the man’s death. The review will examine the patient’s medical records, assessments, video footage, and potential underlying health conditions.
Dr. Young emphasized the ongoing challenges faced by the ER, which had handled approximately 100 patients in the previous 24 hours, including many high-acuity cases. He attributed the delays in part to an inability to discharge admitted patients from the hospital. This, in turn, created bottlenecks in the emergency department.
“We had a number of admitted patients in the department, and we weren’t able to get them into beds in the facility because the patients within HSC we needed to get out — we have not been able to successfully get them back out to their communities or their residences in a timely manner,” Young explained.
Michael Herman, a member of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, echoed these concerns, highlighting systemic issues that impede patient flow through emergency departments across the country.
Young clarified that staffing levels in the ER were not believed to have contributed to the patient’s death. He added that HSC had activated multiple surge protocols over the preceding 24 hours to enhance patient flow.
While emergency wait times have seen gradual improvements over the past year, Dr. Young acknowledged that they remain far from optimal.
This tragic incident follows several similar deaths in Winnipeg ERs in recent years. In February 2023, a patient died in a hallway at HSC after being triaged, amid a surge of critically ill patients. In November 2023, a patient passed away at Grace Hospital after waiting 33 hours for a bed. On January 19, 2024, another patient died at St. Boniface Hospital ER after a five-hour wait and diagnostic testing.
The latest death underscores ongoing challenges within Winnipeg’s emergency care system, fueling calls for systemic reforms to address ER backlogs and improve patient outcomes.
Source: Swifteradio.com
