'Things are critical right now': Manitoba doctor sounds alarm, says hospitals are overwhelmed
CTV
An emergency room doctor is sounding the alarm after a patient waited 10 hours before being diagnosed with a heart attack.
An emergency room doctor is sounding the alarm after a patient waited 10 hours before being diagnosed with a heart attack.
Dr. Kristjan Thompson, the past president of Doctors Manitoba, says when he arrives at work at St. Boniface Hospital he sees halls lines with patients on stretchers.
“We cannot keep doing this dance. Something has to change,” Thompson said. “Things are critical right now.”
The doctor says one patient waited 16 hours with a bowel obstruction, and another patient has been waiting for a bed for six days.
“A patient was having a heart attack while they were waiting, and that is just unacceptable.”
He says while this type of heart attack did not show up in earlier tests, they were waiting in pain for 10 hours.
Thompson says this weekend they only had eight beds for ER patients, as 34 beds were filled by patients waiting for a bed upstairs.
