Patient backlog and staff shortages force ‘re-imagining’

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This article was published 08/11/2023 (546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Innovation is the name of the game when it comes to facing the crisis that is the state of health care in Manitoba.

Those who run Southern Health made clear during their online annual general meeting (AGM) that they know this, and explained how they believe they are being innovative.

Re-imagining was the official theme of the AGM. Curtis said that is why purposeful innovation was added to Southern Health’s core values to tackle things like wait times for surgery or diagnostics.

“With new capitol projects, new staffing models, additional standards and expectations, re-imagining and innovation is the way we move forward together,” said CEO Jane Curtis.

The CEO at the Oct. 18 AGM said they were working with the provincial diagnostic and surgical recovery task force to recover access to care and to improve waitlists. Less than a week later, new NDP Premier Wab Kinew announced he told the task force to stop committing to any new initiatives.

Kinew’s stated goal is to reduce bureaucracy and evaluate spending.

CEO Curtis continued during the AGM to list new initiatives in Southern Health.

“A new surgical urology program began at Ste Anne Hospital, the first time this service has been available in Southern Health,” said Curtis.

Emergency department wait times have been the target of an Emergency Department Joint Council tasked with implementing recommendations from a review and comparison of departments in Manitoba.

Patients waited an average of 6.6 hours in the province to see a doctor at the ER. The times in Southern Health varied widely, with Bethesda Regional Health Centre by far the longest out of the three centres listed at 7.2 hours.

Boundary Trails ER in Winkler had people waiting 3.3 hours, and Portage patients saw a doctor in 2.7 hours. The provincial target is 3.9 hours.

Once admitted, patients had a much shorter stay at Southern Health hospital: 6.9 hours compared to the provincial average of 15.

Weekly schedules of emergency departments are now available on the southernhealth.ca website.

Recruiting doctors and nurses

Any effort at improving wait times or patient access to care requires answers to how the staffing shortage will be addressed.

Southeast communities like Steinbach are relatively booming in population, helping increase Southern Health’s population by 6,000 people in one year. That’s the fastest for any health authority in Manitoba.

That also means doctors and nurses not only need to be retained, but more need to be found.

“In addition to population increase, we still face significant vacancies within our workforce. We still have backlogs of patients waiting for treatment, and we have volumes of people requiring support for mental illnesses,” said Curtis.

She gave an example of bringing nurses in not only the region, but the country.

A contingent from across Manitoba travelled to the Philippines on a medical recruitment drive.

“I’m happy to report that over 300 nurses and health care aids have been interviewed and are looking to come and work in Manitoba,” said Curtis.

“We expect about 40 of those health care providers by the end of the year,” she added.

Given a few weeks to adjust to the Manitoba winter and get settled in, the first Filipino recruits will start at Lions Prairie Manor in Portage.

Increased training is also a focus.

“We want to obviously grow our own, and I think there’s lots of opportunity to do so,” said Curtis.

Opportunities to train in places like Otterburne mean fewer people need to relocate to the big city.

Licensed Practical Nursing was announced for Providence University College to start last September in partnership with Assiniboine Community College. Morden and Portage also got nursing programs.

“These are programs that will help people make that decision easier to become a licensed practical nurse, but not have to leave their families and friends to do so,” said Curtis.

Getting medical students already in school to want to come outside Winnipeg can be a challenge. One way to do that is to give them the experience of actually working in rural hospitals before they graduate through practicums.

“Hopefully they have a really good experience and then want to come and start their careers with us,” said Curtis.

The day before the AGM, the CEO was told the number of nursing students taking their practicums with Southern Health has grown from about 35 last year to over 160 this year.

“We know this is not going to be an overnight achievement. We have to be diligent, we have to always be thinking about other ways of recruiting and training, and also retaining our staff: How do we make our region a really attractive place to work so people really do want to stay and grow their families in our region,” said Curtis.

As for doctors, the Province hired a company to recruit 150 doctors. Chief medical officer Dr. Denis Fortier said he hopes some of those would come to Southern Health over the next two years.

Fortier added that 15 more physician education spots have also been added at the University of Manitoba, bringing total numbers to 125.

“And they are expected to go up to 150 over the next couple of years. It’s a long-term investment but it’s still an important event that happened this year,” said Fortier at the AGM.

Internationally trained physician spots have also gone up from 20 to 25, going up to 30 next year.

Southern Health’s doctor recruitment team works with other teams from across Manitoba to encourage doctors to work in rural Manitoba.

“We recently hosted a family physician resident retreat in Steinbach, which was very successful,” said Fortier.

“And our recruiters go across Canada to attend job fairs,” he added.

Mental health & addictions

Changing how things are done to improve access to mental health and addiction services was also brought up.

“The pandemic has both highlighted and magnified how crucial mental health and addiction promotion and care are to overall well-being. Work in this area is more intense than ever, with many reviews and strategies coming into existence,” said Curtis.

“Virtual care and mobile care are some excellent advancements in this work,” she added.

Southern Health received approval for a hybrid medical-mobile withdrawal management service to help with mental health and addiction services.

“This program will help support participants 16 years or older who want to detox from a substance within their own community rather than having to go to a facility far away from home.

While based at the Portage District General Hospital with a dedicated medical bed there to provide medically monitored drug withdrawal services, Curtis said the mobile team will be moved across all of Southern Health as required.

Building facilities

Board chair Adam Monteith dove into what was built in the last year.

New announced capital projects including the renal unit at Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach were listed. Monteith said this is just phase one at Bethesda, with more acute beds and capacity planned.

Other buildings Monteith said progress was being made on in Southern Health include a Boundary Trails Health Centre expansion creating more care beds in Winkler, and a new Portage Regional Health Centre that will expand patient beds, surgical capacity, and create a “modern emergency department.”

The expansion of Steinbach’s Rest Haven care home was also touted, along with Boyne Lodge personal care home in Carman.

Southern Health has 4,437 employees, with another 1,388 working for affiliate health corporations and community-owned not for profits like personal care homes.

Annual operating and capital expenses totalled $461 million.