Winnipeg nurse says staff raised safety concerns before patient died while waiting for care

A nurse who was working in Manitoba's largest hospital when a man died while waiting for care last week says during the last year, staff have been warning hospital executives and the government that an incident like this could possibly happen. 

"A lot of us were really sad, especially since we tried so hard to prevent something like this [from] happening," said the Health Sciences Centre emergency department nurse. "The hardest thing was that this patient essentially died alone in the hallway." 

The chief operating officer of Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre said at a news conference last week a patient was brought to the department by ambulance at around 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, and they were assessed and triaged. 

Dr. Shawn Young said about an hour later staff were alerted the patient's condition had worsened, and while medical intervention took place at that point, the patient died.

An investigation is looking at the patient's time in the emergency department as a potential critical incident. 

Young said the emergency room was at or nearly at baseline staffing that night, but that they were seeing double the amount of the highest acuity patients. 

Two nurses who work in the emergency department at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre spoke to CBC about the death, but both asked for anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs. The first nurse — who was working that evening — as well as the second nurse both said the emergency department was very busy that day. 

The second nurse said on the day the patient died, while there were four triage nurses working, there were more than 40 patients waiting for care including several waiting in the EMS hallway. 

"The patients did not stop coming in," said the first nurse.

There were also challenges moving admitted patients out of the emergency department into other units at the hospital, meaning there was very little bed flow for patients coming into emergency, they said.

While Young said the hospital's overcapacity protocols went into effect last Tuesday in an effort to improve patient flow, the second nurse questioned why it took a death for that to happen. 

"Sunday, it was bad. Monday, it was bad. But then Tuesday — miraculously — all these people have beds."

"What we're having a hard time with is this man had no dignity," the second nurse said. 

"He died in a hallway by himself."