Seven Oaks Nurses’ Letter is a “Cry for Help” against Pallister’s Dangerous Health Cuts
May 28, 2019
Winnipeg - A letter from nurses at Seven Oaks General Hospital shows that the Pallister Government's reckless cuts to the health care system are putting patients at risk, says Dougald Lamont, Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party and MLA for St. Boniface.
In a letter to PC Health Minister Cameron Friesen that was cc'd to opposition leaders, Seven Oaks nurses wrote they are the testing ground for the Pallister Government's new model of "sub-acute" care. They say there are serious problems because they are being forced to take on patients in more serious, "acute" condition. Nurses say it is putting patients at risk.
The letter, dated May 22, 2019, but sent by e-mail today, reads in part:
"We are receiving unsafe transfers from other hospitals (Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, and the Grace Hospital) and direct admissions from Seven Oaks Emergency Department. The patients we are admitting are acute and not appropriate admissions to these specific departments. The acuity with diagnoses such as Congestive Heart Failure, Sepsis, and Unstable Angina are putting patients at risk in this Sub-acute setting. The definition of sub-acute is very unclear from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority."
"The nurses at Seven Oaks are saying out loud what we have been hearing from health care professionals across the province for months. The Pallister Government's reckless cuts are putting patients at risk," said Lamont. "The PCs have no real plan, have frozen funding for three years, and are breaking systems that work without anything to put in their place. It's dangerous."
The letter goes on to say that,
"Seven Oaks General Hospital has been running over-capacity for the past few months... Given these current changes and the high acuity of patients admitted and transferred to 3 Unit 10, 11 and 12, we do not feel that we can provide safe and adequate care to these patients."
Lamont said that on an issue as important as health care, where Manitobans lives and health are at stake, the cuts and changes the Pallister Government has been making are not just dangerous, they are unnecessary.
"The numbers don't lie. Health care spending by the PCs has been frozen for three years, since 2016, even as our population grows and ages and as federal funding goes up," said Lamont. "Cuts don't provide care and neither is Brian Pallister."
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