Dozens of people gathered outside Seven Oaks Hospital on Sunday afternoon to protest the upcoming closure of the hospital’s emergency room.
The transition of the facility’s ER to an urgent care centre was originally scheduled for September but has since been moved up to Monday at 7 a.m.
“(Premier Brian) Pallister is choosing to close another ER despite clear evidence it will hurt patients,” Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew told reporters in front of the hospital. “When he closed Concordia’s ER, St. Boniface Hospital was so overwhelmed it was forced to turn patients away.”
Sunday’s rally comes less than a month after Kinew hosted his party’s first election-style event urging the Pallister government not to make any more controversial decisions ahead of the September 10 election.
The New Democrat leader also shared documents he obtained from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority through freedom of information requests.
The documents show a reduction of 90 beds at Seven Oaks Hospital since the summer of 2017. As well as 128 fewer acute care beds in Winnipeg hospitals.
“Advances in medicine have allowed more procedures to be safely done on a day surgery basis or accommodated in short-stay surgery units,” said Health Minister Cameron Friesen in an email sent to Global News on Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve increased the number of beds in these units from 12 to 34. They are not included in the bed map provided to the NDP.”, Friesen said.
Kinew says over 7,000 community members have signed a petition to keep the ER at Seven Oaks open.
He has previously promised that if he becomes premier in September, he will reopen the ERs at Seven Oaks and Concordia.
WATCH: Manitoba government to proceed with Seven Oaks Hospital transition