Grace Hospital doctors beg Manitoba for staffing help to ensure patient safety

Doctors at Winnipeg’s Grace Hospital are begging the province for staffing help in the name of patient safety.

In a letter signed by 45 doctors at the Grace and obtained by 680 CJOB, they say there was a resident doctor working on the medicine ward overnight to look after 100 or so patients, but that position was taken away last year.

As a result, the doctors say, there’s been a rise in critical incidents, and a temporary solution — in which a doctor from the intensive care unit (ICU) can be called in to help — isn’t working.

The temporary model is set to end on March 31, the doctors say in their letter.

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“Our members are concerned for the well-being of our patients and our continued ability to provide high quality complex care,” the letter reads in part.

“We cannot emphasize enough that patient safety remains severely compromised at the Grace Hospital because of the current inadequate response and commitment to properly fund a position.

“This is below the standard of medical care that Manitobans deserve.”

According to the letter, some of the doctors no longer feel comfortable working at the west Winnipeg hospital due to after-hours patient safety.

The doctors say they made a proposal to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in November asking to hire a doctor to work overnight, a standard of care they say is available at the Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital.

While they say their initial proposal was approved by the WRHA, according to the letter, that approval was retracted days later “for unclear reasons.”

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They say a new proposal with the same request was “met with silence” until Tuesday, when, they say the WRHA did not provide “an appropriate funding model.”

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Section of General Internal Medicine at the Grace Hospital stepped up to care for Manitobans on the COVID-19 wards,” the doctors write.

“We now require that the system does the same in support of our patients.”

Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon was asked about the letter at an unrelated press conference Friday.

“What I am told is that the WRHA approved additional physician resources and supports for the Grace Hospital. I’m also aware that they have been given the go ahead to hire a hospital medical officer,” she said.

“So it’s a matter of hiring into those positions and getting those positions fully staffed and filled.”

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In a statement Friday afternoon, the WRHA said the Grace Hospital had been notified that they can hire a hospital medical officer for the overnight shift.

The spokesperson didn’t say when the doctor would be in place, only that recruitment would start soon.

The president of Doctors Manitoba, Dr. Candace Bradshaw, says situations like the one that prompted the letter are adding to physician burnout in a system already riddled with shortages.

“It breaks my heart to see the frustration.”

“If the ICU physician is already running an ICU, and then they’re called to somebody who’s crashing on a ward or a hundred people who may have their own issues going on all at the same time, that is not possible. That is dangerous. Somebody will get left behind, and it’s just a matter of time,” Bradshaw told Global News on Friday.

“One physician for 30 to 40 acute patients is really scary as it is. It happens all the time here, but that’s bare, bare minimum.”

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson says it’s disappointing to see things get to this point.

“I think it’s an absolute shame that urgent requests from frontline providers, physicians and nurse have to go public in order to get any attention from this government,” Jackson said Friday.

“It feels like concerns are falling on deaf ears — that no one is really listening to nurses or to physicians clearly. And when you aren’t paying attention to what the people at the bedside and providing the care saying, then you are definitely missing the boat.

“We are seeing more and more highly acute patients coming into our emergency departments, into our units. So I think it’s really important that this government starts listening to those care providers before it becomes a crisis and we have to go public with it in order to get some attention.”

–With files from Global’s Rosanna Hempel and Shane Gibson