With other rural ERs closed, people drive to Virden, Man., pushing staff to their limit: nurse
CBC
During a nurse's night shift in Virden, Man., multiple ambulances arrive carrying people who need mental health, cardiac and trauma treatment, but she feels the hospital is understaffed to care for the number of patients they're taking in.
"There's a lot of fear to come to work, and that's never been the case," the nurse, who CBC has agreed not to identify due to concerns she has over repercussions for speaking out. "It's heavy, heavy care."
She said a combination of part-time closures and the suspension of emergency services in some other southwest Manitoba towns due to staffing shortages has left people from other communities no choice but to go to Virden, and it's pushing staff in that town to the limit.
The nurse also said wait times for the emergency room in the city of Brandon, Man., have recently prompted people to make the approximately 75 kilometre drive west to Virden, a community of just over 3,100 people, so they can be treated faster.
And just last month in Melita, Man. — a town of just over 1,000 people about 70 kilometres south of Virden — ER services were suspended after a long-time physician providing primary and ER care retired, according to Mayor Bill Holden.
Holden said two nurse practitioners in Melita and a doctor from a neighbouring community are working to maintain primary care services.
But with no full-time physician, people who need ER care have to get an ambulance or drive to a larger centre.
"People are very upset, I can tell you that," Holden said. "When you start taking health care out of the community …people are going to go to Brandon, they're going to go to Souris, Virden."
In an emailed statement, Prairie Mountain Health acknowledged a doctor's retirement "after many, many years of dedicated service to the community," and said it's working with the community of Melita to develop a primary care service plan that will serve the needs of the community.
The nurse said Virden has been seeing an influx of patients from Melita amid service interruptions.
"Even if a facility is open part of the time, in an emergency situation a loved one might not look online to see where's open so then they'll come to a place that they always know is open, which oftentimes is Virden," the worker said.
"Our facility sees a lot of that. Patients drive long distances to get here."
A recent emergency department schedule, posted online by the health region for the week of Oct. 2-Oct. 8, shows ER services in Hamiota were unavailable after 8 a.m. on Oct. 3.
Souris's ER was open 24 hours a day for the week with the exception of Oct. 4, when it closed after 8 a.m., and Oct. 5, when it didn't open until 8 a.m.