Discussions

I don’t even know what to say any more. The system is broken beyond repair it seems. Don’t get old and don’t get sick!

The system is broken, its going to take years to fix it and years to train more Drs, nurses, etc as there is not enough staff. Its not just Brandon, its everywhere.  
 
Here are the wait times in Winnipeg:  
 
https://wrha.mb.ca/wait-times/emergency/#current

There is a back log of patients waiting to go into assisted living or a care home. So being told there are no beds is sadly true. If they can move people to smaller towns they will but most need to go via ambulance but than that means that’s taking away from an operational rig in case of emergencies as well. It’s sad and broken and won’t be fixed any time soon.

I agree with making it easier for doctors from other countries practice. I know of a handful of nurses and at-least 2 doctors that did jobs not even close to their trained profession. One of the doctors was even a surgeon back in his country. Head of a hospital type thing. Came here and worked as a home care aid for years.  
 
It’s quite an interesting system Canada has set up. Majority of people allowed to immigrate here have to have a profession or trade, then once they come here , they can’t get that job (easily)… so their home country lost a skilled worker/professional and we gained … a new Tim Hortons employee (no angst against Tim H employees , understand my point please)…. It’s actually very sad if you think of it. We have hundreds of degrees driving us around and serving us food or stocking shelves…. Very sad

I believe that you have covered it all - great job.

Why couldn’t our governments look at other countries who have great health care systems and adopt what they are doing ? Norway, Switzerland and Australia for example. Right now it’s almost hopeless here. You could literally die waiting.

Sadly, I think that’s what it’s going to take to get the government to get their heads out of their butts

Have you looked at the Prairie Mountain health job opportunities lately? There are 17 PERMANENT Registeted Nurse positions available in ER alone! That means 17 RN’s have recently left ER. There were no applicants for these positions thus are they now listed as “open until filled”. 17! And that is just in the ER department alone! And that is just registered nurse positions! That is not including all the other unfilled positions ie- LPN, healthcare, doctors, etc. Wait times are not going to improve if we can’t fill the current positions …

I forgot to say. There was this woman who I know went into spontaneous labour. Parked her car in the parking lot, then barely made it into the ER… she waited in line to even just see the registration/nurse… she was keeled over in the chair and they made her walk to “patient registration “ along the side of the hospital…. She ended up on the floor with the lady asking “…are you okay?…”… baby was born 10 minutes later …. The only person that helped was a nurse from a random department that ended up walking past after her break and running and grabbing a wheelchair …  
 
The system is completely broken … unfortunately I don’t even think someone dying waiting room is going to do anything … everyon is trying , and completely worn out… what else to do?…

I once spent 13 hours in the ER at BGH, 12.5 hours of just waiting to be seen. Very little tests done. Went home with vague answers and what they did find wasn’t related to why I went in at all  
 
A year later (maybe 2? It’s been years of dealing with symptoms and time is all blurred together) I went to Portage ER with same symptoms and they admitted me for a few days to do testing and monitoring and sent me home with TWO diagnoses and referrals to 2 different specialists to help deal with and learn about the diagnoses. For years I’ve been joking that I needed to find a “greys anatomy” doctor…one that wouldn’t stop until they found an answer. I finally found them in Portage! I couldn’t be more thankful for the team of caregivers I had there  
 
I know our whole provincial healthcare system is broken right now and they are severely understaffed and under appreciated but something has to change…people are suffering  
 
I also totally agree about new Canadians and how their talents are being wasted here in Canada! We should be utilizing them, not punishing them by having to work jobs they are over qualified for and not interested in  
 
To anyone dealing with healthcare issues, keep fighting and I hope you find your “greys anatomy” doctors soon!! What a world of difference it makes when you finally have the RIGHT answers

In my opinion, if you can wait 2 years for your diagnosis, then your case was not an emergency. That is what family doctors are for, not emergency departments. THAT is why they are overrun, overcrowded and have extended wait times. If people used the emergency department for EMERGENCIES ONLY then the wait times would be drastically different. You waited 12.5 hours to be seen because your case was not an emergency. If it was, you would have been seen sooner.

I am the kind of patient that will die at home before I go to the ER. Trust me, when I do go to the ER, (6x my whole life) it is because someone has forced me to go because they have seen me at my worst. I know what you’re saying but without going into my medical details, I can confidently say that yes, it was an emergency. Maybe not one that needed to be seen asap but I definitely needed to go.

Yes but you realize that there are a huge number of people right now who don't have a family doctor/ primary care provider that they can see for a routine problem. Where are they supposed to go? If a person is lucky enough to have a primary care provider, they are often so booked up that you can't get in for weeks because they too are overrun, overcrowded, and have extended wait times.  
Don't say go to a walk in clinic, because there is also a serious shortage of walk in clinics. And the ones that exist are overrun, overcrowded and have extended wait times. Walk in clinics also are generally for quick or acute problems, not chronic illnesses or preventative health care or health screening. If screening is missed, or if chronic illness management is lacking, people need to go to the ER when complications become acute.  
And then there are no empty beds in the hospital for people who need to be admitted, for a variety of reasons including staffing, respiratory season, etc making the wards overrun, overcrowded and have extended wait times.  
And there are also people who are in hospital waiting placement in a PCH, but those are all full too.  
So as you can see, people going to ER for non-emergent matters is NOT the only reason - it is a multi faceted problem in a number of areas of the health care system.

One of the bad mistakes was eliminating the RN program 2 year program. RN from these programs were were great nurses and properly still are if working.  
 
2 years great nurses. Quicker creation of nurses. They worked on wards almost right from start and had training in all areas.  
 
They had the 4 year RN as well who were great too. Longer creation of nurses.  
 
By cutting this two year program, result less nurses.

Was there ever a 2-year RN program? That doesn't seem like enough time. There's been 2-year LPN programs as long as I can remember, and BU has a bridging program for LPNs who want their BNs.  
 
The problems we have have now are decades in the making. A general rule of thumb is that however long you spent making a mess, it will take you 2x as long to fix it. So it could take, feasibly, 1 to 3 generations to get ourselves out of this situation.

I'm not sure we can blame the end of the diploma program for the nursing shortage - it's been 14 years since a degree has been the minimum education requirement for an RN.

Well we all know which provincial government was in power over most of these years, and their middle name is “ cut”. You can only cut so much before you run into trouble and trouble is what we have now in the medical system. Someone should be held accountable don’t you think?

This is a national issue, not provincial.

Your right it is Nation wide but one party more than any other prefers to cut than to spend. We don’t need anymore cutting. Especially in the medical field.

Small town hospitals are full too. I know someone who has been waiting to get transferred back to their hometown for almost a month. Small town ER’s are on rotation for on call services. In the rural areas if you need ER you might get lucky and be able to go to the facility in your hometown OR drive 1/2 hr or 45mins or an hours depending on which hospital is open!

 
 
Edited by bigmoe, 2024-01-15 12:46:56