Nearly 13% of patients left Winnipeg ERs without receiving care in 2022: Shared Health | CBC News

Nearly 13 per cent of all patients left Winnipeg emergency rooms and urgent care centres without receiving care in 2022, according to new data provided by Shared Health, marking a five-year high.

About 12.5 per cent of patients left without being seen by a physician, up from 8.5 per cent the year before, according to a Shared Health spokesperson.

The rate continues to be highest at Health Sciences Centre, where 26.5 per cent of patients left without care last year. The year prior, that rate was 20.5 per cent.

2022 marked a dismal five-year high for patients leaving emergency rooms and urgent care centres.

Just five years ago, before Seven Oaks and Concordia hospitals transitioned to urgent care centres, that rate was 5.1 per cent.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the data from Shared Health is “incredibly concerning,” according to an emailed statement.

“The dire situation of our province’s health-care system is laid bare when over a quarter of patients visiting the emergency department of Manitoba’s flagship hospital are leaving without being seen due to unacceptable wait times,” Jackson said. 

“Patients who make the decision to go to ERs and urgent care centres in our province for care should be able to be confident that they will be seen.”

Shared Health said the increased rates of patients leaving without being seen are concerning and reflect longstanding issues with patient flow, which were exacerbated by the pandemic, as well as staffing challenges, the spokesperson said in an email on Wednesday.

To combat those problems, Shared Health says it put a physician in triage program into place, moved long-term patients who don’t require hospital-level care and relocated patients in Winnipeg hospitals to sites in their own health region when appropriate.

The spokesperson says the Health Human Resources Action Plan — which the province announced in November to focus on staff retention, recruitment and training — is supplementing these initiatives.