Manitoba hospitals low on essentials for feeding babies, reading heart rates due to supply chain issues

Nurses say Manitoba's hospitals are low on critical supplies they use to feed premature babies, deliver intravenous nutrition to sick children and adults, and monitor patients' vital signs.

Hospitals have been short on some supplies for the past several weeks, a spokesperson for Shared Health has confirmed.

There have been supply chain issues at different points in the pandemic, driven by a number of factors like shortages of raw materials and transportation issues, they wrote.

"Issues with some supplies have been ongoing for the past several weeks and predate the protests at the border," a spokesperson wrote in an email to CBC News.

But an email to staff at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre sent Monday says the border closures are at least in part to blame.

"As you are aware, supply availability has been reduced due to resource shortages, staffing shortages at manufacturing plants, border closures and highway closures due to inclement weather in Manitoba and Ontario," the email reads, adding that arrangements are being made to secure more supplies.

This comes as some health-care staff say the scarcity of necessary medical items is further complicating care of patients in a hospital system already under immense strain from nearly two years of the pandemic.

"Everything is just hanging on daily," one nurse who works in pediatrics said. 

"We are making do with what we have for now, but we obviously can't do that indefinitely."

CBC News has agreed not to reveal the identities of the nurses because they fear they could be punished at work for speaking out.

The nurses say hospitals are running low on items they need to feed sick babies, children and adults through IV. This includes syringes, bottles and feeding tubes.

Hospitals are also low on what they feed patients: baby formula and total parenteral nutrition (TPN) — a specialized mixture of nutrients given through an IV tube.

"It's not fair for the patients or their families," one nurse said.

Hospital staff are on the fly trying to decide whether some hospital items normally intended for one use can be sterilized and used again.