There is still no dedicated overnight physician on the medicine ward at Grace Hospital despite promises made more than three months ago that staffing issues would be addressed.
The ward, which treats more than 100 patients dealing with everything from heart attacks to pneumonia, has been without a dedicated overnight physician for at least a year. Funding approval for the position was finally granted back in February, but hospital sources speaking to 680 CJOB on the condition of anonymity, said only one person applied and that person was deemed unqualified.
One doctor told 680 CJOB staff are feeling “frustrated” and “ignored” after new information also shows Manitoba Health and the deputy health minister at the time were aware of concerns going back to the fall of 2022, but nothing was done to address the situation until earlier this year.
Emails obtained by 680 CJOB through an access to information request show the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) asked for help from then deputy minister of health, Karen Herd, in mid-November.
An email to Herd from the WRHA’s president and CEO, Mike Nader, reveals that at the time, the WRHA was waiting for a response to a briefing note with proposals for new positions that Shared Health had submitted to Manitoba Health in September.
But according to the WRHA, the department didn’t reply until February.
In a statement given to 680 CJOB and Global News on Wednesday, the health authority said all requests for new positions require approval from Manitoba Health.
“The WRHA submitted a funding proposal to the Manitoba Health for these additional permanent positions in early September 2022,” a spokesperson said. “We can similarly confirm that no response was received from the department regarding the initial proposal or on any follow-ups from the WRHA and Shared Health.”
In an open letter addressed to Health Minister Audrey Gordon on March 9, more than 40 Grace doctors expressed concern patient safety was “severely compromised” due to the overnight situation on the medicine ward. The shift used to be staffed by resident doctors, the letter indicated, but they were “withdrawn from the site” in the spring of 2022. A temporary solution was then put in place over the winter in which physicians were pulled from the ICU to rapidly respond to patients on the medicine ward.
The model, which continues to be in place to this day, wasn’t “set up to catch and prevent clinical deterioration prior to requiring ICU care,” the doctors wrote in the March letter.
When the group of doctors went public with their concerns, the health minister and the WRHA indicated the hospital medical officer position for Grace’s internal medicine ward had recently been created. As of June 15, no one has been hired.
“There has been little to no interest in the positions posted at the Grace,” one physician told CJOB this week.
The WRHA also created postings for three physician assistants in late winter. Only one of those positions has been filled.
In the meantime, physicians at the Grace said patient volumes remain high while safety is being further compromised and staff are burned out and frustrated.
“Morale is at an all-time low,” one doctor said this week, adding that a physician colleague recently quit working at the hospital.
On Wednesday, a statement from the province said Gordon acted when she was made aware of the Grace issues in late February and ensured additional funding was in place for overnight coverage. Her office did not answer questions as to why approval wasn’t given when it was first brought to the deputy minister and Manitoba Health in the fall of 2022.
Both the minister’s office and the WRHA declined interview requests on the timeline and the current quest to fill the overnight position.
In its statement, the health authority added that recruitment was ongoing. ICU physicians will continue to be on call for the medicine ward’s overnight shifts through August, the spokesperson said.
But one of the doctors called the WRHA’s expectation that the positions would be filled in a matter of weeks “naive,” adding the temporary plan to have the overnight physician in the ICU on-call was further compromising patient care.
“Not having a dedicated overnight physician is not safe nor does it provide the minimum standard of care, let alone high-quality care,” the doctor said. “The urgency from leadership and from government just isn’t there. The Grace physicians are frustrated and are feeling undervalued and ignored.”
— with files from CJOB’s Richard Cloutier and Global’s Sarah McCarthy.
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