Confidence in the health system shaken after the death of a patient in the emergency room

Rosemarie Figueroa, a Winnipeg resident who trained as a doctor in the Philippines says she no longer has confidence in Manitoba’s health care system after hearing about a patient who died while waiting in the emergency room at the Manitoba Science Center health this week.

Rosemarie Figueroa, 59, says she herself waited 24 hours for care at the same emergency department last year.

In late November, Ms. Figueroa’s family doctor recommended she go to the emergency room, fearing that her months-long cough and difficulty breathing were symptoms of a pulmonary embolism.

She claims that a doctor at the hospital Seven Oakcame to the same conclusion and gave her the care she needed, but not before waiting 24 hours in the emergency department of the HSC without being seen by a doctor.

I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I am disappointed […] and I’m scared at the same time, because we don’t want to go to the emergency room anymoresaid Ms. Figueroa, during a telephone interview.

In an interview given to the show Information Radio of CBC Manitoba, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Manitobans should continue to have confidence in the health care system because there is great people working on the front lines.

His government said Wednesday that it had ordered an investigation into the death of the man who had spent nearly eight hours in the waiting room of the emergency department of the HSC.

Shared Health, which oversees health care delivery in Manitoba, said emergency department staff care for the most seriously ill patients first, while others are screened and reassessed based on their initial triage .

Patients should tell someone if their symptoms change or worsen, a Shared Health spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

It’s so sad

Rosemarie Figueroa arrived in Canada in 2004, after practicing medicine in the Philippines for approximately five years.

Although she doesn’t practice in Manitoba, Figueroa says her most recent experiences as a patient stand in stark contrast to the emergency departments she worked in at private and public hospitals in her home country.

I’m a little emotional because this […] didn’t just happen to me. It happens to everyoneshe laments. It’s so sad.

After a day spent in the emergency department of HSCMs. Figueroa went to Seven Oaks General Hospital where, after two hours of waiting, she collapsed and was examined by a doctor.

When asked to describe her confidence in the healthcare system, she responded: zero.

Trust crumbles

CBC/- spoke with other Winnipeggers who share Figueroa’s view.

Dr. Barry Lavallee, CEO of the indigenous health organization Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoawawin Inc, also affirmed that many Aboriginal people who live in the province do not trust the system.

The deterioration of confidence in the health system is only increasingmaintains Mr. Lavallee, referring to a recent case where an Indigenous woman who had visited his clinic avoided going to the Winnipeg hospital to receive care when she needed it.

Those responsible for HSC said the emergency room was overcrowded the night before the man died, but staffing levels were not unusual.

At a news conference on an entirely different topic Thursday, Kinew argued that Manitoba can no longer rely on incremental change and needs to make larger-scale structural reforms in health care. health.

We already know the problem

The board of directors of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) was in a meeting when its members learned of the patient’s death, says board member Dr. Fraser Mackay.

We already know the problem. The problem is not newhe said on Wednesday.

To be honest, we are a hair away from this happening in any service in the country.

Mr. Mackay also believes that high-level change is needed in health care across the country, and this is what his association has researched and is advocating for today.

In the meantime, he’s asking Manitobans to blame neither patients who go to emergency rooms nor health-care workers.

This is truly a system level issue.

With information from Rosanna Hempel