Latest news with #SharedHealth
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Health officials prepared to ‘expand' services with thousands of evacuees arriving
Like all evacuees from Flin Flon, Susan Gunn doesn't know how long she'll be in Winnipeg, so she's starting to think about her family's medical needs. 'Both my kids take medication that will have to be filled at some point,' said Gunn. 'It's going to be getting access to their prescriptions, their medications, and getting that filled. That's definitely a concern.' She said they know people from their community who have serious health issues and could require care in Winnipeg. 'People who have heart conditions and catheters, like, you just name it,' said Gunn. 'There are people coming from Flin Flon who are hooked up to oxygen.' Health officials have already had to pivot because of the wildfires. Over the last two days, patients and care home residents in Flin Flon were moved to other facilities across the province. In a statement to CTV News, Shared Health said all regional health authorities are planning to make medical services available, including nurses and family doctors, to help evacuees, if necessary. 'Health Sciences Centre is managing all patients within existing capacity but is prepared to expand to support growing demand if needed, including evacuees in congregate shelters in Winnipeg who require health services.' Premier Wab Kinew said they're managing within the existing framework, but that could change. 'Because of the state of emergency, we've started those conversations if we need to ramp up efforts,' said Kinew. Shared Health also said staff will help direct patients to walk-ins or virtual care to avoid using emergency departments. In situations where people have been moved from hospitals or care homes, family members can call one of two phone numbers to find out more information. In Winnipeg: 204 788 8200 Province-Wide: 1 888 315 9257
Global News
08-05-2025
- Health
- Global News
Winnipeg woman calls for change after family member turned away from addictions support
A Winnipeg woman says the province needs to take a closer look at policies surrounding addictions treatment in Manitoba. Cheryl Chorneyko's family member, who Global News is not identifying due to privacy concerns, has been struggling with a severe alcohol addiction for years. Chorneyko says she wants to speak out, before it's too late. 'The system can do better. Number one, I just don't want my loved one dead,' Chorneyko told to Global News. 'This is eight years of trying to keep (them) alive.' Chorneyko says her loved one has repeatedly faced barriers in accessing treatment at detox centres and rapid access to addictions medicine, or RAAM, clinics. She's says they've been turned away from the clinics for being intoxicated — something Chorneyko says just simply shouldn't happen. Story continues below advertisement 'The symptoms of the diagnosis should never be the barrier to access care,' Chorneyko said. 'How can you be an addiction doctor practicing in a setting that you turn people away from the number one symptom of the diagnosis. No other place in health care does that happen.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy According to Shared Health, individuals do not have to be substance free for any period of time to access services at RAAM clinics. However, a Shared Health spokesperson said if an individual is too intoxicated to engage or communicate, they will be asked to return another time. But Chorneyko says that puts her family member at risk; they have fallen down sets of stairs and injured themselves, and while trying to get sober, the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal are severe, she says. 'My loved one has experienced being turned away from the detox unit on a scheduled admission date, and the reason for the medical detox unit is because of the possibility of seizures. So my loved one has seizures when they stop drinking alcohol, so the only safe place for them to be is in the detox unit,' she said. 'They show up, they're on time, but they're intoxicated. Not a disruptive drunk, nothing (like that) — but turned away from the detox unit on a scheduled admission day for the symptoms of the illness.' Minister of housing, addictions, and homelessness Bernadette Smith says the policies are put in place to protect patients. Story continues below advertisement 'Those policies and practices are coming from experts in the field, so we trust the practices and policies put in place for folks,' Smith said. 'We want to make sure people aren't at the point where they can't be consenting.' The minister also said the NDP government has reduced the number of people being told to return to a RAAM clinic on another day, due to increasing capacity, including opening the RAAM clinic at the Aboriginal Health & Wellness Centre. 'The number of people that have to come back is almost none,' Smith said. But that's not the case for Chorneyko's family member, who is now accessing addictions services in Ontario. She hopes Manitoba will review its policies around addiction services, something that, she says, would save lives. 'I just don't want my loved one to die.'
Winnipeg Free Press
06-05-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Shared Health launches rural 'community paramedics' program connecting patients to needed services
Paramedics in rural Manitoba are doing community outreach and connecting vulnerable patients to needed services. Shared Health announced Tuesday it has launched two specialized units based out of Brandon and Selkirk staffed by 'community paramedics' who are scheduled daily between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Program manager Loren Bacala said the nature of emergency medical services is typically episodic, and that can be a barrier to connecting patients to services and supporting continuous care. Shared Health has launched two specialized units based out of Brandon and Selkirk staffed by Emergency Paramedics in the Community (EPIC). The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service created EPIC more than a dozen years ago. (Boris Minkevich / Free Press files) 'If, for example, paramedics show up at a home following a 911 call and the patient refuses transport (to hospital), there is no clear pathway for followup,' Bacala said in a news release. 'With a community paramedicine program in place, that patient can be referred for followup and connected to the most appropriate care for their needs.' A spokesperson for Shared Health said the initiative is modelled after one in Winnipeg. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service started EPIC — Emergency Paramedics in the Community — more than a dozen years ago. Health-care workers' success with relationship-building and reducing repeat calls to 911 prompted an expansion of EPIC in 2019, the City of Winnipeg's website says. Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Sign up for The Warm-Up EPIC is staffed by advanced-care paramedics who travel in SUVs and provide health assessments, intervention and referrals to home care and other programs. In a news release Tuesday, Shared Health indicated its community paramedics will not be responding to 911 calls on ambulances. 'Because of this, they have the ability to spend time with identified patients to provide more in-depth care and truly understand their needs, referring them to allied health services as appropriate,' the release said. The program is expected to be expanded to serve other rural communities. Maggie Macintosh Education reporter Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press . Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie. Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative. Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is 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.
CBC
02-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Changes after review into man's death while waiting at Winnipeg ER include having aides check vitals
Social Sharing Having an around-the-clock health-care aide trained to check the vitals of patients waiting in the emergency room is one of the new measures introduced at Manitoba's largest hospital after a man died while waiting in for care earlier this year. A critical incident review was launched after Chad Christopher Giffin, 49, died following a nearly eight-hour wait for care at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre on Jan. 7. On Thursday, the province released 17 measures it says were put in place immediately after his death and steps taken to respond to recommendations coming out of the critical incident review, in order to prevent future incidents. "One of the fundamental pieces was improving capacity," Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma said at a Thursday news conference, held to announce a team of front-line workers who will work to cut wait times in hospital ERs. Fifteen health care aides have been trained to check patients' vitals at the ER, with one position dedicated to that task at all times, the province said in a statement sent to CBC. Policies for next-of-kin notifications for patients who die while under the care of Manitoba's Public Guardian and Trustee have also been updated to emphasize the importance of notifying their families — something Giffin's sister pushed for. Giffin, who was under the care of the public guardian due to mental illness and addictions, had said he had no next of kin, his sister Ronalee Reynolds previously told CBC News. While she and her mother are happy with changes made to the hospital's ER and internal processes, they're still "disappointed" that the public guardian and trustee didn't have their contact information updated, which may have prevented Giffin's death, she said Thursday. Reynolds said her brother had estranged himself from their family for close to a decade. She only learned after his death that her brother was well known by staff at the HSC's ER. On the night he died, he arrived at the hospital just after midnight and was declared dead in a resuscitation room just before 8 a.m., after staff noticed his condition had worsened. The emergency room was well over capacity on the night leading up to his death, but staffing was close to a baseline level. The Globe and Mail reported on Thursday that emails obtained through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act show Manitoba deputy health minister Scott Sinclair had asked Shared Health why he and an associate deputy health minister were not notified about Giffin's death sooner. Sinclair also said that media outlets learned of Giffin's death several hours before he and the associate deputy minister learned about it, according to the Globe. "There were concerns about the timing of that, which I think is important to reflect on, which is again why work is actively being done at Shared Health to address that," Asagwara said Thursday. Giffin's death forced the province to look at the shortcomings of its health-care system, they said. "That particular situation, that tragedy, provided opportunities for us as a system to improve and to learn, and that work continues to be done," Asagwara said. "We want to make sure that we respect the family that was affected, and that we take the necessary steps collectively to prevent incidents like that from happening again." Asagwara also cited the province's homelessness strategy and its work to establish a sobering centre, as well as a supervised consumption site, as potential ways to decrease the number of homeless people visiting the ER for warmth in the winter months. Protocols under scrutiny The province says an internal waiting room surge protocol was also developed at HSC, in response to the critical incident report around Giffin's death. Protocols are being reinforced with staff in daily "huddles," and 10 patient records are reviewed every week to ensure protocols are being followed. Community support worker logs are also reviewed to ensure patients are checked on each hour, the province said. Work schedules were reviewed to make sure emergency departments can meet minimum staffing requirements, and staff members who were working when Giffin died were also trained to use automated external defibrillators, according to the province said. Staffing in the waiting room and contingency planning during times of high patient volumes are also being reviewed, along with environmental reviews of the waiting room to improve sightlines from triage. Triage process guidelines were also updated with a focus on the benefits of direct assessments, the province said. The province said it's also working toward reducing overcrowding in ERs, and may expand support services that are typically part of capacity and flow protocols.
CBC
27-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Manitoba government working on recruiting nurses from the U.S.
The Manitoba government is trying to recruit U.S. nurses. Shared Health recently outlined licensing and immigration options for American nurses, and a $5,000 dollar incentive, in the hopes of convincing them to come to Canada.
