It’s no wonder emergency-room wait times continued to hover at record levels in Winnipeg in 2023-24. Despite promises by the previous Progressive Conservative government and, now, the NDP to expand hospital capacity, the province did not add a single staffed bed to the system last year.
According to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s 2023-24 annual report, there were 2,244 staffed hospital beds in the system that year (which runs from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024). That’s the exact same number as 2022-23 and 2021-22.
The figures do not include Health Sciences Centre, which is operated by Shared Health. Those statistics are reported separately in Shared Health’s annual report which, as of Tuesday, had not been released.
Despite all the promises by both governments, hospital capacity has not expanded one iota. The annual report shows that every hospital in Winnipeg (excluding HSC) had the same number of staffed beds in 2023-24 as in the previous two years.
(As an aside, the WRHA removed hospital capacity data from the 2023-24 annual report that was published online last week. After the Free Press inquired as to why, the WRHA said it posted the wrong annual report online in error and sent the Free Press the “correct” one, which includes statistics on hospital beds. The WRHA said Tuesday it planned to upload the correct version online).
The number of hospital beds at HSC has been largely stagnant in recent years, up slightly to 649 beds in 2022-23 from 645 the previous year, but down from 653 in 2020-21.
The previous Tory government promised prior to last October’s election that it planned to boost the province’s health-care workforce to staff more hospital beds.
The NDP, while in opposition, also pledged to add more beds to the system to help bring down ER and surgical wait times. The party made that one of its key election promises last year.
But the annual report shows not a single bed has been added to the system in three years. Worse, there are fewer beds in the system than there were in previous years, despite a growing and aging population.
In 2020-21, there were 2,274 beds in Winnipeg hospitals, 30 more than there were last year.
The number of beds has dropped significantly since the previous Tory government consolidated hospital operations in 2017 and 2018 (despite promises at the time that overall capacity would not change after the reforms were implemented).
In 2017-18, there were 2,398 staffed beds in Winnipeg hospitals. After consolidation, that number dropped to 2,292 in 2018-19 and 2,265 the following year. It continued to drop after that.
The upshot is there were 154 fewer staffed beds in Winnipeg hospitals in 2023-24 than there were in 2017-18. Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s population grew from 740,839 in 2017 to 815,600 in 2023.
Is it any wonder hospital overcrowding has gotten worse in recent years?
ER wait times have grown significantly since hospital operations were consolidated five years ago. The median ER wait time at Winnipeg hospitals was about two hours in 2017. It grew to four hours last winter and has since come down somewhat to 3.35 hours. But it’s still two-thirds longer than it was prior to consolidation when there were more staffed beds in the system.
Adding more beds alone won’t solve hospital overcrowding. There are many other factors that go into what hospital physicians refer to as “access block,” where newly admitted patients in ERs can’t access a bed on a medical ward and sometimes wait days in ERs for one. The more admitted patients there are languishing in ERs, the less time ER docs and nurses have to see new patients, which drives up wait times.
There are other ways to improve patient flow through hospitals, such as speeding up patient discharges and moving long-term patients to alternative placements.
But the province can’t significantly reduce wait times without adding more staffed beds to the system, especially with a growing and aging population.
There may have been some improvements in hospital capacity since March. We won’t know until next year’s annual report comes out. The government claims that it has added more beds to the system since then. Whether they’re all staffed or not is unclear.
Average bed occupancy at Winnipeg hospitals now stands at nearly 95 per cent. It has grown steadily in recent years, up from 90 per cent in 2015-16. That illustrates how little flexibility there is in the system, especially during peak periods, such as respiratory illness season.
The system can’t keep up with demand. And so far, there is no evidence government has improved that.
tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
Tom Brodbeck
Columnist
Tom Brodbeck is a columnist with the Free Press and has over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.
Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press’s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.