Concordia Hospital’s emergency room is closing on Monday and being converted into an urgent care centre.
On Wednesday, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority announced it was accelerating the transition.
The switchover was supposed to take place on June 25. It’s since been moved up to June 3.
“You may as well just stay home and die,” says Cathy Nilsson, whose husband is a patient at Concordia.
Nilsson believes an ER at Concordia is essential to the surrounding area.
“I can’t believe that in this day, that this sort of thing is going on in a city this size. We need this, we’re spread out so far,” she continued.
Relatives of other patients at Concordia are voicing their displeasure with what they call a lack of information regarding the closure.
“No one called me about anything. I just found out yesterday that they were closing on Monday,” says Cheryl Dubois.
“Nothing — I didn’t receive any notice, I just heard about it here,” says John McPhee, whose wife is currently being housed at the Concordia.
Dubois thinks people will keep coming to the hospital and expect to use it as a regular ER despite the change coming down on Monday.
“Absolutely, I’ll take that upon myself to demand some kind of health care,” she said.
The nurses’ union says moving up the date has created more confusion.
“At least if we would have waited until June 25th, we would have had some time to ensure that the public is aware that it’s no longer an ER but it’s a functioning urgent care centre,” says Darlene Jackson, the president of the Manitoba Nurses’ Union.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says a $100,000 ad campaign was launched on Wednesday.
The goal of the campaign is to educate patients and community members of the emergency room closure beginning on Monday.
The ads will continue to run until the end of July.
WATCH: Northeast Winnipeg residents call for Concordia’s ER to remain open
Comments