Government adding 50 new beds to HSC to help reduce wait times

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The provincial government is adding 50 new beds to the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) Winnipeg this year, it was announced Monday.

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The beds will consist of 35 medicine, 10 psychiatric and five surgical beds as part of ongoing efforts to expand inpatient capacity, reduce pressure on emergency departments and increase surgical capacity. Twenty-seven of the medicine beds have already been staffed and opened along with nine of the psychiatric beds.

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“As many of us know, HSC has the busiest emergency department in the province,” said Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, speaking at a press conference at HSC on Monday. “It is our busiest hospital and these new beds will help ease the pressures and strains and the overcrowding that we’ve been seeing in our emergency rooms. These beds are going to help patient flow and make sure that there are beds ready for patients when they need them.”

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The announcement is part of over $65-million allocated from last week’s provincial budget to reduce emergency room wait times to provide better patient care, faster. This includes staffing funding for a total of 151 new acute care beds at hospitals across the province including those at HSC, as shortages of acute care beds exacerbates overcrowding in emergency departments.

The bed expansion at HSC follows similar investments at other health-care facilities. Grace Hospital is in the process of opening 31 new medical and surgical beds including 10 as part of a new family medicine program being established. Another 36 acute care beds at St. Boniface Hospital will open in phases beginning later this spring, the minister added.

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“As we’ve talked about previously at announcements, it’s one thing to talk about investing in more beds, it’s important that we never forget about the tireless professionals who are staffing those beds,” said Asagwara, who would not say how many nurses and other health-care staff had been hired to support the beds. “Really these investments is about the front lines. These investments are about people. We are investing in staffing, we are investing in people at the bedside.

“Because ultimately, a bed is just a bed if you don’t have a nurse, a health-care aide, a doctor, an allied health-care professional to provide the care that Manitobans count on.”

“The funding of these additional beds at HSC improves our ability to do what we strive for, delivering excellent patient care in a safe and equitable way to each and every patient,” said HSC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Manon Pelletier. “It also means that HSC can do its part to support the flow of patients through the entire health system. As you know HSC is Manitoba’s trauma centre and provides specialized support in many other areas of care only delivered here.

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“The beds being funded today will support our ability to deliver those services in a timely way and further our capacity to accept transfers from other facilities and other health regions. This increased in-patient capacity here in addition to other initiatives that have supported by our government like the Minor Treatment Clinic will further improve our ability to provide the right care at the right time and in the right place for all patients.”

“We know we need to add beds which means adding staffing,” said Premier Wab Kinew. “This is not something like flicking a light switch and then it happens overnight. This is something that takes careful planning. It takes compassionate leadership to be able to convince people to remain of the front lines.

“Of course, it takes a long-term strategic vision to be able to shepherd and stick-handle these beds coming on line as part of an overall effort to improve health care in our great province.”

gdawkins@postmedia.com

X: @SunGlenDawkins

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