Ste. Anne hospital over capacity throughout September, October, new data shows
CBC
A hospital in southeastern Manitoba was filled beyond its capacity for parts of the fall, according to data from the local health authority.
The Southern Health data shows the occupancy rate at the Ste. Anne hospital averaged 100.2 per cent in September and 107.4 per cent in October, according to a document the Opposition Progressive Conservatives obtained through a freedom of information request and presented Wednesday during question period at the legislature.
The same document, which includes monthly occupancy rates from January 2022 until this October, shows bed capacity rates have gradually increased since the fall of 2022, when rates were just over 60 per cent.
The occupancy rate exceeded 80 per cent at the start of January 2024 and surpassed 90 per cent beginning in July.
"There is a clear surge in patient overcrowding in Ste. Anne under this NDP government," PC health critic Kathleen Cook said in the chamber.
"This overcrowding is clearly a result of the NDP's broken health-care promises, failure to address staffing shortages and neglect of rural health-care."
NDP Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara responded by blaming the former PC government for letting the system deteriorate under its watch.
Ste. Anne's ER saw its hours trimmed in 2018, 2022 and 2023, and the hospital's obstetrical services were closed, the minister said in a written statement.
They blamed cuts under former PC premier Heather Stefanson for the "many challenges in rural health care, and at Ste. Anne in particular."
Asagwara also said the NDP government has hired hundreds more health-care workers since being elected to office in October 2023.
However, Cook said the government is wrong to deflect blame about a problem that's gotten worse while the NDP has been in power.
"The 107 per cent capacity rate that we're seeing in October 2024 is substantially higher than the capacity rates we saw for any of the months throughout the last three years," she said following question period.
"This is an NDP problem. This is happening right now under the NDP government."
Southern Health, the regional health authority responsible for Ste. Anne's hospital, blamed the spiking occupancy rates on issues that include an aging population with more chronic conditions, patients with multiple comorbidities, and the struggle some people have finding a family doctor. However, none of those explanations seem to explain a significant spike over the last two years.
The province is looking to eliminate time limits for victims of intimate partner violence seeking civil justice.
A former Quebec junior hockey player sentenced to prison last year for sexual assault will get a new trial.
People who use the Indigenous-led overnight shelter on the edge of downtown Winnipeg are weighing their next steps after learning the facility is set to shut down, but Manitoba's premier says nobody will get left behind.
An 81-year-old man from Prince County has died after a single-vehicle crash on Route 14 near Christopher Cross, police say.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.