Latest news with #Debbie'sLaw
Winnipeg Free Press
27-05-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
April data offers glimmer of hope on ER, urgent-care wait times
Opinion The provincial government is hoping new hospital emergency room data is the beginning of a trend towards shorter wait times. But it's still to soon to tell whether the recent improvement is just a one-month statistical blip. According to the most recent wait time data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (set to be officially released Thursday but obtained by the Free Press), the overall wait time at emergency rooms and urgent-care centres in Winnipeg fell 15 per cent in April compared with the previous month. It was also down eight per cent compared with the same month in 2024. It's not quite cause for celebration, since there have been similar one-month drops over the past year-and-a-half. But it is a promising sign. The median wait time in Winnipeg for all ERs and urgent-care centres in April was 3.32 hours. That's down from 3.92 hours in March and a slight improvement from 3.6 hours in April 2024. The median wait time is the point at which half of patients wait longer and half are seen by a doctor or nurse practitioner sooner. In other words, many patients wait longer than the posted median wait time. The good news, though, is even some of the longest wait times are showing improvement. The so-called 90th percentile wait time — where nine out of 10 patients have shorter wait times and one in 10 wait longer — fell significantly last month. It was 8.75 hours in April compared with 11.13 hours in March. The 90th percentile wait time in April 2024 was 9.70 hours. But will it last? Median wait times at ERs and urgent-care centres peaked at four hours in December 2023, a little over a month after the NDP was sworn into office. There were improvements in 2024, but wait times began to grow again late last year and rose to 3.97 hours in February of this year. What is encouraging, though, is every hospital in Winnipeg showed improvement in ER and urgent-care wait times in April, including at St. Boniface Hospital, where wait times fell to 3.95 hours from 5.55 hours. Grace Hospital saw its median ER wait time fall in April to 5.07 hours from 6.78 hours in March. Related Articles Bold action required on cardiac care crisis Nurse fights to be heard after medical emergency kicks off 72-hour hospital odyssey Team of front-line workers to tackle hospital wait times Directive to better inform cardiac patients awaiting surgery 'great start' but not enough, family who lost mother says Heart patients to receive written timeline for surgery, minister announces Long road to recovery: ER, urgent care wait times return to disastrous levels Two months after cardiologist recommended heart surgery within days, Manitoba senior continues to wait Promised mobile MRI will travel between Thompson, The Pas: health minister Health minister, Tory critic square off over heart surgery waits, Debbie's Law Budget's health-care cash must be targeted to combat wait times Both of those hospitals have had some of the longest wait times in the city in recent years. And while there have been some recent improvements, hospital congestion at those facilities — which backs up into ERs and causes long wait times — is still at crisis levels. The 90th percentile wait at Grace in April, for example, was 10.30 hours, meaning 10 per cent of patients waited longer. It's an improvement over the previous month and is slightly better than it was in April 2024. But it's still historically high and means many patients are getting substandard care. Long ER wait times are caused mostly by patients who are admitted to hospital but have to wait — sometimes days — for a bed on a medical ward. When those patients pile up in ER hallways, doctors and nurses have less time to see newly arriving patients, which exacerbates the problem. The province is hoping that additional hospital staff added to medical wards over the past 18 months is beginning to bear fruit. There have also been other changes made to hospitals that could be contributing to the recent drop in ER wait times. For example, hospitals are now able to discharge patients on weekends, something they didn't have the staff to do before. That frees up hospital beds sooner and takes pressure of ERs and urgent-care centres. Even if the recent improvements hold, ER wait times in Winnipeg are still far higher than they were seven to 10 years ago when they hovered around two hours (often dipping below the two-hour mark). Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. Even if the recent improvements hold, ER wait times in Winnipeg are still far higher than they were seven to 10 years ago when they hovered around two hours (often dipping below the two-hour mark). They rose dramatically from 2021 to 2023, roughly doubling in length. That was part of the fallout from the previous Progressive Conservative government's move to consolidate hospital operations in Winnipeg, including closing some ERs and converting three of them to urgent-care centres. One of the NDP's key campaign promises in 2023 was to 'fix' health care, including bringing down ER and other hospital wait times. So far, they haven't been able to do so in a sustainable way. But the recent data could be a sign that things are improving. We won't know for at least a few more months whether it's a longer term trend or just another blip on the radar screen. Tom BrodbeckColumnist 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.
Hamilton Spectator
25-04-2025
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
Siblings continue to push to legislate Debbie's Law
A pair of Niverville siblings, Colleen Dyck and Daniel Fewster, have been making some political headway in terms of enacting a new healthcare policy called Debbie's Law. After their first press conference on March 12, Dyck and Fewster learned that Manitoba's Minister of Health, Uzoma Asagwara, had announced a healthcare directive heralding many of the tenets of the proposed Debbie's Law. But the duo says this recent progress still isn't enough. 'What we've understood is that a directive is great and it's no small thing, but it isn't party-proof,' Dyck says. 'You can have directives. But then the next party gets elected and they can do away with them. There's no teeth to it in that you can't really protect it long-term.' So on Wednesday, April 23, the siblings found themselves meeting with the press once again in the hopes of encouraging the provincial government to go further. Debbie's Law is a healthcare policy developed by the siblings with help from a nonprofit Canadian public policy think tank, . It's a response to the heartbreak the pair experienced last fall when they lost their mother Debbie to heart failure while she waited on a surgical wait list. She was only 69. If legislated, Debbie's Law would compel local health authorities to ensure that patients are informed when life-saving treatment cannot be provided within the medically recommended timeframe. Doctors and specialists would then be required to advise alternatives, such as out-of-province treatment. When speaking to the media, Fewster focuses on a couple of key points that are missing from the government's current directive. First, he says, patients waiting for surgery should be given a journey map outlining each step of their care process so they can track gaps or delays in their treatment. This should include guidance on what to do and who to contact when this happens. Second, the wording shouldn't be vague and instead provide clear direction on what is an appropriate wait time for different levels of health acuity. 'These additions would empower patients, reduce uncertainty, and ensure accountability within the system,' Fewster says. 'We believe these changes are not just desirable but essential to improving patient outcomes.' Dyck furthered that same sentiment. 'We understand why the current government would like to keep surgeries in Manitoba, particularly the life-saving ones, and understand with the stroke of a pen this won't be solved overnight,' says Dyck. 'But it is our sincere belief that legislating Debbie's Law is the very least that can be done for a patient's journey through a broken system. Until that system is overhauled, changed, and patched up, people will fall through the cracks.' According to Dyck, the healthcare system in the EU is vastly more effective than in Canada because most of their healthcare policies are firmly legislated, making them difficult to dismantle. Since the initial press conference, the siblings have been invited to meet with the administration of the St. Boniface Hospital, where their mother's surgery should have taken place. 'They are doing a full inquiry into what happened with Mom,' says Dyck. 'Something went wrong with Mom's file and they [are investigating it].' Last week, Dyck and Fewster also got a personal audience with Asagwara. 'To her credit, I think she is trying to understand what happened [with our case],' Dyck says. 'She was very curious, wanting to hear how we are doing and wanting to hear our story. We don't think she was trying to placate us, but she was not willing to move it to legislation.' Legislature Debates Debbie's Law Thanks to individuals like Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative healthcare critic, a bill legislating Debbie's Law has been submitted to the Legislature and seconded by Ron Schuler, MLA for Springfield-Ritchot. Schuler agrees with Dyck that a directive doesn't have much power on its own. He likens it to a workplace situation where the boss makes a general recommendation on workplace behaviour rather than creating clear written policy. 'A directive can often feel like it's just a political response,' Schuler says. 'But then there's no forms, no staff put to it, there's no money assigned to it. It's like, 'This is basically what we should do.' Whereas legislation says, 'This is what we must do.'' As well, he adds, a directive doesn't have the power to require the healthcare system to send patients out of province if they cannot provide surgery in a timely manner. On April 24, the bill was debated in the Legislature. Thankfully, after some rigorous debate, it unanimously passed second reading. From here, it is eligible to move to committee for ongoing debate. If the committee votes in favour of passing the law, it will move back to the Legislature for a third and final reading. Unfortunately, Schuler says, a request made by Cook for the committee to prioritize the bill has been denied by the government. 'And now for the bad news,' Schuler says. 'The government doesn't ever have to call it to committee, [in which case] it dies. It's the government that now must send it to committee and that must give it third reading.' This is where the public can get involved, he adds, by lobbying the NDP government to see this bill through. Letters, emails, and phone calls to the premier's office are all effective ways of doing that. 'They track [these public communications] in the premier's office and at some point in time they say, 'It's getting to be painful. We want to do it. Let's put it through third reading and pass it,'' says Schuler. 'People getting engaged and lobbying their government officials has a huge impact.' If the bill gets to committee, Schuler says that the public can get involved once again. It's during a committee session that the public is invited to register as delegates to speak in favour or against the bill. For some bills, he says, hundreds of people show up to make presentations. Members of the public can watch for advertisements in the news when a committee decides to entertain public delegations. People can also reach out to Schuler, Cook, or the clerk's office for information on how to register. Regarding Debbie's Law, Schuler stands behind the legislation. 'There was a big judicial case that happened years ago in which the judge said that justice delayed is justice denied,' Schuler says. 'I believe that belongs in healthcare as well. Healthcare delayed is healthcare denied.' As for whether the government should be responsible to send patients out of province if they can't guarantee timely care, he says that the governing Progressive Conservatives did just that while working to clear the COVID-19 pandemic surgical backlog. The Democratic Process Dyck and Fewster have attended a number of legislative question periods, as well as the Debbie's Law debate. It can be disheartening to sit in the audience, Dyck says, when they mostly witness political grandstanding between the parties. She describes the atmosphere as toxic, cold, and sometimes puerile. 'We're really pushing them to collaborate,' Dyck says. 'This is not a partisan issue. The world seems to be focussed on fear… and divisiveness right now. Can you guys not lead the charge with something collaborative for the sake of everyone you represent?' But to Schuler, these legislative skirmishes are what make Canada's democratic process effective and even enviable. 'It makes for a strong democracy,' Schuler says. 'It's got to be a competitive and tough environment because if the government knows they have a tough, competitive opposition, they'll be very careful on what legislation they bring forward.' He provides the example of China, a country in which parliamentary debate simply doesn't happen Similarly, he says, in the U.S., the president is rarely challenged. 'Our 'civil war' is in question period,' says Schuler. 'That's where we take each other on. We don't take each other on with knives and guns and that kind of stuff. We take each other on with passion and emotion and words, and we challenge each other. Our system produces very strong politicians.' Niverville Man Waits for Life-Saving Surgery Niverville residents John and Liesa Funk are currently going through something eerily similar to what Debbie Fewster experienced last fall. John is on the wait list for a double bypass surgery. Like Fewster, his initial visit to the doctor was followed by a rapid succession of diagnostic appointments. After that, the process seemed to stall. It's now been three months since John met with his angiogram specialist and he's now dangerously close to the top-end date in which he was told his surgery should take place. At this time, he has yet to be given a surgery date. His wife Liesa has been his medical advocate so far. Having worked as an EMS for 12 years, she's familiar with the severity of his condition and flaws in the medical system. She's on the phone regularly, trying to get answers. 'We've been told [by health staff] again and again, 'It's the system, not the doctors,'' says Liesa. 'I said to the nurse, [Debbie] was my friend and my neighbour that passed away waiting for surgery. She's my age. Now my husband's in the same situation and I'd prefer if he didn't have to die, waiting.' The only definitive instruction they've been given so far is to head to the emergency department if John feels any symptoms, such as shortness of breath. In recent weeks, they did just that. When they arrived at the hospital, he was triaged fairly quickly. And then they waited. 'We sat there for just over 14 hours,' Liesa says. 'We [finally] saw a surgeon after 11:30 p.m. and it was only because we [got im-patient]. That was very disheartening. John says, 'I'm not doing that again!'' Since then, they have seen the surgeon who will eventually perform his surgery. Even so, Liesa says, the nurse warned them that summer vacation time is coming for surgical staff, seemingly as a way to warn them that their wait may be far from over. Liesa has since been in contact with Ried Love, the director of cardiac sciences in Manitoba, and he agreed with her that patient communication needs improvement. It was Love, though, who was the first to inform her that John's surgery was listed as elective. 'Elective?' Liesa asks. 'We're not choosing to have this surgery. That's almost like a slap in the face. But he said, 'That's just how it's categorized.'' Because of people like Debbie and John, and countless others waiting for life-saving surgery in Manitoba, Dyck and Fewster are not ready to give up the fight. 'There's a lot of other countries that are doing better than us,' says Dyck. 'I don't know how much we can make a ripple effect, but we just know we're going to give it the college try. We're going to keep showing up and keep pushing.'
CBC
12-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Family of Manitoba woman who died waiting for heart surgery demands answers, proposes legislation
Social Sharing Debbie Fewster's family says she was entering a sweet time in her life last summer, settling into retirement and making plans to spend more time with her grandchildren around the country. By fall, she was dead at age 69, and her family is blaming what they say is a flawed health-care system that left her waiting too long for urgently needed heart surgery. "We trusted the system to save her, but it failed her. And it's failing too many others," Fewster's son, Daniel, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Winnipeg. Fewster's family, and a public policy advocacy group called held the news conference to call on the provincial government to create legislation that better protects patients on waiting lists. They're proposing legislation they've dubbed Debbie's Law, which would require that health authorities inform patients when life-saving treatment cannot be provided in a timely period, and discuss options for care outside of the province. "Debbie's Law won't fix everything, but it will introduce something that is desperately needed, and that is radical honesty," said Colleen Dyck, one of Fewster's daughters. She wants to see deaths of people on waiting lists tracked in order to better understand and fix the problem. "We're here today because we refuse to let her loss be in vain. We pray that our voices will be heard." Since being registered as a charitable organization in 2017, Second Street has compiled data on waiting list patients who have died and summarized that research in annual reports. It has promoted health-care reform, including conducting research on private health insurance and producing a video that explores the benefits of private health-care options. According to Second Street, it has identified nearly 75,000 cases where patients died waiting for various surgeries and diagnostic scans since the 2018-19 fiscal year. It says the number is likely much higher because many jurisdictions don't track those deaths. The Second Street reporting does not specify whether the death was related to the health condition the person was awaiting treatment for. Second Street president Colin Craig says Nova Scotia has the best record for tracking the deaths of patients waiting for treatment, providing information in each case on what surgery was required and the length of wait before their death. "Most other provinces do not do that, but others do provide more comprehensive data than what we find here in Manitoba. It's very difficult to get this data out of Manitoba," said Craig, a former Prairies director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, at Wednesday's news conference. 'She trusted the process' Fewster, a mother of three and grandmother of 10, told her family in July 2024 that her doctor was concerned about her heart, Daniel said. She went for a stress test in August, and "the results were so serious they called her back that night," he said. Fewster was told she needed an echocardiogram to find a blockage and that surgery would be required within three weeks. Her ECG on Aug. 22 showed extreme blockages that required a triple bypass, Daniel said. "Up until then they had moved fast. They acted like they knew her life was on the line, and we trusted that they'd keep that pace," Daniel said. But on Sept. 4, after speaking with a pre-op nurse, Fewster was told the surgery might come late that month or in early October. The system was catching up with summer delays caused by staffing shortages due to holidays, Daniel said. Fewster died on Oct. 13. "I can't describe the shock, the anger and the grief. Our family has been devastated," Daniel said. "The only thing we've heard from the health authority since is we family got a bill for the ambulance that came that night. Not a word of explanation, not a call to say they're sorry, nothing about why they couldn't help her, even though they knew it was urgent." Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told reporters at the legislature Wednesday they are open to looking over the proposed Debbie's Law, as well as any other alternatives to strengthen the health-care system. "Anyone who passes away while waiting for any kind of care, that is a significant loss and something we don't want to see happening," the minister said, extending their condolences to Fewster's family. Asagwara said the province is also working to boost cardiac services at St. Boniface Hospital, which was a promise the now governing NDP made during the 2023 election campaign. But there are protocols already in place to prioritize patients who need life-saving care or critical intervention, including those with urgent cardiac needs, and ensure they can get care in Manitoba, Asagwara said. Since Fewster's death, the family said they've been told by others who have navigated the health-care system they needed to push harder and be more demanding, Dyck said. "Mom was not a squeaky wheel. She was patient, she trusted the process. She didn't want to cut in line or get in the way of anyone else's care," Dyck said. "She needed advocates, and we thought we were doing that for her. We didn't realize that we were expected to fight and manipulate the system just to get the care she needed." She referred to that system as a broken one where people are forced to compete for care, resulting in loss of life and eroded trust. "Our mother's doctors did everything right. They expedited her care. And the system failed." Had the family been informed that delays were likely, they would have done anything to pay for care elsewhere, said Daniel, even remortgaging their homes if necessary. Transparency, accountability needed Craig said while government inspectors regularly visit restaurants and publicly disclose infractions they find, that doesn't happen in the health-care system. "We know about this story … the worst possible mistake the system could make, not because the system is accountable and discloses what happens, but because the family has been willing to speak out," he said. The system causes harm, he said, by leading patients and families to believe that treatment is forthcoming in a timely manner when it isn't. Debbie's Law is a solution that could help patients across Canada, "and it's one that political parties across the political spectrum should be able to get behind," Craig said, insisting he's not suggesting a two-tier health-care system. Ideally, government would recognize that if they're taking taxpayer money to fund health care, but not fulfilling that role, they would look at covering those costs outside the province, he said. "But what we're talking about is a much smaller ask. And that is for the system to be more honest."
