Ste. Anne hospital over capacity throughout September, October, new data shows

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Peggy

A hospital in southeastern Manitoba was filled beyond its capacity for parts of the fall, according to data from the local health authority.

The Southern Health data shows the occupancy rate at the Ste. Anne hospital averaged 100.2 per cent in September and 107.4 per cent in October, according to a document the Opposition Progressive Conservatives obtained through a freedom of information request and presented Wednesday during question period at the legislature.

The same document, which includes monthly occupancy rates from January 2022 until this October, shows bed capacity rates have gradually increased since the fall of 2022, when rates were just over 60 per cent.

The occupancy rate exceeded 80 per cent at the start of January 2024 and surpassed 90 per cent beginning in July.

“There is a clear surge in patient overcrowding in Ste. Anne under this NDP government,” PC health critic Kathleen Cook said in the chamber.

“This overcrowding is clearly a result of the NDP’s broken health-care promises, failure to address staffing shortages and neglect of rural health-care.”

NDP Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara responded by blaming the former PC government for letting the system deteriorate under its watch.

Ste. Anne’s ER saw its hours trimmed in 2018, 2022 and 2023, and the hospital’s obstetrical services were closed, the minister said in a written statement.

They blamed cuts under former PC premier Heather Stefanson for the “many challenges in rural health care, and at Ste. Anne in particular.”

Asagwara also said the NDP government has hired hundreds more health-care workers since being elected to office in October 2023.

However, Cook said the government is wrong to deflect blame about a problem that’s gotten worse while the NDP has been in power.

“The 107 per cent capacity rate that we’re seeing in October 2024 is substantially higher than the capacity rates we saw for any of the months throughout the last three years,” she said following question period.

“This is an NDP problem. This is happening right now under the NDP government.”

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The Manitoba government is requiring all private nursing agencies to enter into contracts with the province that sets certain rules and guidelines, including the rates they can charge the public health-care system. Meanwhile, the Opposition Progressive Conservatives raise concerns with Ste. Anne’s hospital being filled beyond capacity in September and October of this year.

Southern Health, the regional health authority responsible for Ste. Anne’s hospital, blamed the spiking occupancy rates on issues that include an aging population with more chronic conditions, patients with multiple comorbidities, and the struggle some people have finding a family doctor. However, none of those explanations seem to explain a significant spike over the last two years.

Cook said a conversation she had Wednesday with a front-line worker painted a picture of chaos at Ste. Anne’s hospital.

The employee said patients were being crammed into any available space, and were staying in hospital longer than necessary because of a lack of personal care beds and available home care options.