Manitoba doctors say hospital wait times are the worst they’ve seen

Wait times in Emergency Departments in hospitals across Winnipeg continue to rise, with patients waiting up to eight or even nine hours to see a physician.

It’s an ongoing issue that only seems to be getting worse.

Dr. Paul Doucet, ER Physician at St. Boniface Hospital, has been working for 35 years. He says he has never seen wait times this long in his entire career.

“The wait times in the Emergency Department are really a marker for the dysfunctional system as a whole and it is not a simple fix,” explained Dr. Doucet.

“It’s totally unacceptable. Patients should not have to be waiting this long.”

Doucet says with the lack of beds and major staffing shortages, healthcare workers, including himself, are completely frustrated.

“Every time I do an interview, I say I won’t do an interview because nothing changes, other than things getting worse. All of us in healthcare want to deliver time and care to patients, but it’s frustrating when you can’t do that.”

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On Wednesday afternoon, wait times were staggering, patients at HSC were waiting up to eight hours, while patients at St. Boniface were waiting for over seven hours.

Dr. Kristjan Thompson says seeing these numbers isn’t surprising. “The emergency room is both, the entry point ad the overflow for the entire healthcare system. So, when there is a problem in the ER, that means there is a problem everywhere.”

Thompson says wait time issues pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic. Mix that now with more patients coming into hospitals with COVID-19, and major staffing shortages, he says longer wait times are a symptom of a broken healthcare system.

“Folks are burnt out, they are tired. They have been on the frontlines of this pandemic for over two years, and we need to do everything we can to support those folks to keep them in their roles so they can feel they can deliver exceptional care to patients and that involved improving our healthcare system and improving the way we communicate with healthcare workers,” added Dr. Thompson.

On Monday, Health Minister Audrey Gordon was asked about the growing emergency department wait times. She said she hopes this problem gets addressed as soon as possible.

“One of the things I’m doing is insisting they fix it. So that they look at the various options that are available, and that they’re talking to staff in the emergency departments. Sometimes, as we say, the best ideas come from the hospital floor,” said Gordon.

However, Doucet isn’t buying the Health Minister’s words.

“For her to say or insists that they fix it, I’m not sure who they are and what resources are being given to solve this problem. It’s not a simple issue,” explained Dr. Doucet. “It hasn’t started in the last couple of days or years and won’t be fixed in the next few days or years.

“But we need a conservative effort to look at the underlying issue and address them in a collaborative way going forward.”