Reopening ERs won’t fix Manitoba’s struggling health-care system: doctor – CBC

‘It’s not the number, it’s how they function,’ doctor says after NDP promises to reopen 3 emergency rooms

Oct 25, 2023

As wait times increase and more patients are walking out of emergency departments without receiving care, some Manitoba doctors say reopening previously closed emergency rooms isn’t necessarily the solution.

The recently elected NDP government ran on a pledge to reopen three emergency rooms that were closed and converted to urgent care centres under the previous Progressive Conservative government.

But some front-line workers say addressing patient flow and the systemwide “access block” needs to be the top priority.

“It’s important to look at the system — not to impose expensive solutions [of reopening ERs] and oversimplify complex problems,” said emergency department physician Dr. Alecs Chochinov.

According to Shared Health data, more than one in three patients who recently sought medical care at Health Sciences Centre’s emergency department in Winnipeg left without seeing a doctor.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ndp-er-reopening-plan-doctors-1.7006237