{"id":3730,"date":"2025-10-28T00:45:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T03:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/28\/union-decries-absolutely-chaotic-situation-at-health-sciences-centre-er-last-week-amid-overcapacity-woes\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T00:45:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T03:45:56","slug":"union-decries-absolutely-chaotic-situation-at-health-sciences-centre-er-last-week-amid-overcapacity-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/28\/union-decries-absolutely-chaotic-situation-at-health-sciences-centre-er-last-week-amid-overcapacity-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Union decries \u2018absolutely chaotic\u2019 situation at Health Sciences Centre ER last week amid overcapacity woes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Union decries \u2018absolutely chaotic\u2019 situation at Health Sciences Centre ER last week amid overcapacity woes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ManitobaThe union representing Manitoba\u2019s nurses says the health-care system is stretched to its limit, with the emergency department at the province\u2019s largest hospital hitting patient counts well over its usual capacity.Doctors saw patients in hallways amid surge, says Manitoba Nurses UnionArturo Chang \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Oct 27, 2025 7:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe Manitoba Nurses Union said in a social media post Monday morning the Health Sciences Centre\u2019s emergency department was at double capacity for more than a week. (Fernand Detillieux\/Radio-Canada )The union representing Manitoba\u2019s nurses says the health-care system is stretched to its limit, with the emergency department at the province\u2019s largest hospital hitting patient counts well over its usual capacity.The Manitoba Nurses Union said in a social media post Monday morning the Health Sciences Centre\u2019s emergency department was at double capacity for more than a week, with up to 120 active patients at one point.\u201dWhat\u2019s happening at HSC\u2019s emergency department is totally unacceptable,\u201d the post read in part. \u201cIt\u2019s not safe for patients, and it\u2019s not fair to the nurses doing everything in their power to provide care in impossible conditions.\u201dUnion president Darlene Jackson said HSC nurses described the situation late last week as \u201cabsolutely chaotic.\u201d Jackson said some adult patients had to be diverted to the children\u2019s emergency department to deal with the overcapacity issues.\u201dHSC has six resuscitation rooms. I know they were dealing with at least eight resuscitation patients, some of them in the hallways,\u201d Jackson told CBC News in an interview Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit worrying when you are dealing with patients that ill in a hallway.\u201dDarlene Jackson says nurses are already seeing cuts to staffing as health authorities try to save costs ordered by the government. (Randall McKenzie\/CBC)Ronald Harper arrived at the hospital at 9 a.m. on Sunday, but he says it wasn\u2019t until 3 p.m. before he got a room. He said between 30 and 40 people were with him in the waiting room.\u201dI almost walked out,\u201d he told CBC News outside the hospital Monday . \u201cIt was packed.\u201dShared Health said in a statement that a surge was declared Tuesday after the highest-acuity beds at the hospital\u2019s emergency department were filled. Three young patients were seen at the children\u2019s ER to help relieve some of the pressure, it said.\u201dIt is important to note that the 120 patients referenced in today\u2019s post by the Manitoba Nurses Union included individuals at various stages of care,\u201d the statement said.\u201dIt\u2019s important to understand these numbers and not sensationalize them so that people who need to seek emergency care do not hesitate in doing so.\u201dProvince working on it: premierThe wait time at HSC\u2019s adult emergency department was 10 hours as of 3:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority\u2019s website.Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Monday his NDP government works to improving emergency services every day.Premier Wab Kinew said median waits at HSC are good, but more work needs to be done. (Bryce Hoye\/CBC)The premier told reporters at the legislature that the median wait time for priority patients at HSC was about two hours and 20 minutes. A provincial spokesperson later said that figure was obtained internally, and it reflects what wait times were like around noon on Monday.\u201dThose are relatively good numbers,\u201d Kinew said. \u201cBut [the] job\u2019s not done until everyone gets the health care that they need when they need it.\u201d\u201dMedian\u201d would mean half of HSC patients experienced shorter waits than the given number, but the other half waited longer.Jackson said that doesn\u2019t reflect what the majority of HSC patients actually experience.Situation a \u2018crisis\u2019: PC criticRoblin MLA Kathleen Cook, health critic for the Progressive Conservatives, said she\u2019ll take the word of frontline nurses over the premier\u2019s, calling the situation a \u201ccrisis.\u201d\u201dThe major contributor to this is staffing, of course,\u201d she told reporters after question period on Monday. \u201cWe still haven\u2019t seen a credible staffing plan from this government.\u201dRoblin MLA Kathleen Cook told reporters Monday the NDP government has presented no credible solution to health-care staffing. ( Bryce Hoye\/CBC)Jackson called on the province to take staff retention seriously.\u201dWe\u2019re still seeing heavy workloads and staff shortages,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s imperative this government really concentrates on retention of those nurses that are in the system, and what are they going to do to keep them there long enough to bolster our ranks.\u201dWith files from Gavin Axelrod and Bryce Hoye<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Union decries \u2018absolutely chaotic\u2019 situation at Health Sciences Centre ER last week amid overcapacity woes ManitobaThe union representing Manitoba\u2019s nurses says the health-care system is stretched to its limit, with the emergency department at the province\u2019s largest hospital hitting patient counts well over its usual capacity.Doctors saw patients in hallways amid surge, says Manitoba Nurses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,127,1],"tags":[116,126],"class_list":["post-3730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-manitoba","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-manitoba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}