Manitobans suffered delays in treatment or diagnosis leading to death, severe health outcomes, infections, and bed sores during COVID-19’s second wave..Manitoba Health’s most recent critical incident report paints a grim picture of 40 cases, 11 of them ending in death..The report of critical incidents — from January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021 — is a snapshot of the failings in an overburdened health care system..But post-pandemic, nothing has improved warned Manitoba Nurses Union President Darlene Jackson, pointing to an alarming, ever-increasing shortage of 2,500 nurses..“With the patient loads, it’s absolutely a danger. Many, many patients are falling through the cracks in the system,” said Jackson..“We are in a critical nursing shortage, one that I have never seen.”.The report doesn’t single out who in the healthcare system is responsible for the errors, or where they occurred..Reported incidents in the first quarter of 2021 included:.— A patient who died when an urgent after-hours CT scan was denied resulting in an 11-hour delay.— A patient who died after not receiving an urgent surgical intervention recommended by a doctor.— A patient who died days after equipment malfunctioned during an interrupted inter-facility transport.— Deaths of residents in care who developed healthcare acquired infections.— The death of a resident in care whose airway became obstructed while eating and first-aid efforts to clear it unsuccessful å.— The death of someone who went to emergency for detoxification, was discharged, and died the next day.Incidents classified as major included incorrect medication administered; errors in diagnosis — including a patent who underwent surgery for cancer — but the tissue tested negative for malignancy; and a preventable complication during a surgery that required additional life- sustaining interventions. .Critical incidents related to COVID-19 outbreaks in hospitals or personal care homes are reported as groups. .Inadequate staffing will continue to put patients at risk, said Jackson..“When we're seeing things like an increase in the number of pressure sores that are 100% preventable, that’s absolutely linked to a lack of staffing.”.Frequent turning schedules are part of the health care plan. Patients who remain in one position too long suffer ulcers and skin tissue degeneration — bed sores..“When you are dealing with situations where you have a nurse who may assigned double the patient load that she had two years ago, as well as a shortage of health care aides … you do not get those turns done at the appropriate times.”.The number of vacant nursing positions is “growing day by day.”.“We have nurses fleeing the system. Their workloads are absolutely crushing.”.Many are recent graduates who handled a manageable number of patients during training. .They become disillusioned when they “enter the real world” and face a “crushing” workload..“They’re saying ‘I’m gone. I didn’t sign up for this.’”.“Then we have mid-range nurses 10-20 years in who are now looking for escape hatches elsewhere in health care. We have lost many, many nurses to the private, for-profit agencies.”.The Canadian Nurses Association raised the alarm 15 years ago about the nursing shortage Canada faced that “fell on deaf ears.”.“They predicted we were going to be in this situation in 2025… Right now, we are where they were predicting us to be in 2025.”.“We were moving towards a critical nursing shortage long ago. The pandemic just accelerated the process.”.During the pandemic nurses were “thrust” into areas where they had no experience, with no orientation..“The amount of mandated overtime or voluntary overtime is still at probably record high for us. Last year we almost broke one million hours overtime. We had 992,000 hours of overtime.”.“Those workloads have not changed at all since the government announced we are out of the pandemic.”.“Nurses haven’t recovered. They’re burnt out. They’re still working way more hours than they want to…”.Many nurses are suffering from “moral injury” over not being able to adequately care for patients..“I talked to a nurse two weeks ago who said ‘I go to work and all I do is apologize to the patients because we’re short-staffed. I apologize because I can’t answer their bell in a timely fashion.’”.“It should be the employers in the government apologizing — not nurses.”.In July, the Manitoba government announced plans to add 400 new nursing education seats throughout the province..“I absolutely support that 100%, but that means we’re going to see the results of that announcement three to four years down the road.”.“My question to government is ‘What are you going to do today to fix this problem or at least address some of these issues?”.Jackson met with Health minister Audrey Gordon and Premier Heather Stefanson and offered solutions..“Very often they don’t take that solution, or they make it their own and it’s completely inadequate to address the situation.”.“They’re certainly not listening to the nurses on the ground who are begging for help out and are saying ‘We’re dying, we’re drowning in this health care system.’”
