Two Manitoba patients transferred out of province for cardiac surgery

Two Manitoba patients have been transferred outside of the province where they will undergo cardiac surgery next week.

A Shared Health spokesperson says the patients were taken by medevac to facilities in Ontario and Quebec.

“We remain focused on maintaining the most urgent surgeries, including cardiac, trauma and cancer,” a statement to Global News said.  “There are, however, some patients awaiting surgery whose needs have become more urgent but who are able to travel for a scheduled surgery elsewhere.

On May 25, Dr. Eric Jacobsohn, an intensive care physician at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (HSC), said out of 188 people on a waiting list for heart surgery, six had already died.

Recent numbers from the province also show between 900 and 1,000 Manitobans are currently not getting their required surgeries every week.

Endoscopy procedures, non-surgical diagnostic procedures used to evaluate throat, stomach and colon issues, are also being cancelled.

READ MORE: Manitoba doctors plea for decisive action to reverse health care “catastrophe”

As of Friday, 106 Manitoba Covid-19 patients are in intensive care, with 41 of them outside the province (37 in Ontario, 2 in Saskatchewan, 2 in Alberta).

Shared Health’s Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa says the ICU situation improved slightly this week.

“It’s feeling a little bit better than last week, but we’re certainly nowhere close to normal. We’re still seeing about 5-7 admissions a day in the ICU.”

She says in May, there were 263 total admissions into intensive care units compared to 50 in April.

In terms of federal government help, 12 nurses have been working at HSC and have now started at Grace Hospital with more coming next week.  Three medical lab technologists are also helping supporting COVID-19 testing and two medical teams equaling around 14 people helping in isolation centres.

-with files from Will Reimer