Manitoba nurses raise alarm to chaotic, unsustainable work conditions following man’s death in waiting room

The President of the Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU) says nurses have been reaching out since the death of Chad Christopher Giffin in a Winnipeg waiting room last week.

Current working conditions at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (HSC) have become increasingly chaotic and unsustainable.

“Last week, our province witnessed a heartbreaking tragedy in HSC’s ER,” said Manitoba Nurses Union President Darlene Jackson in a post on the MNU Facebook page on Monday morning .

“Since this news broke, HSC ER nurses have courageously reached out, describing their workplace as chaotic, brutal, and unsafe. These words reflect not just a crisis but chronic, daily challenges.”

Last Wednesday, Manitoba’s Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced that there will be a critical incident investigation after a middle aged man died in HSC’s ER waiting room on Tuesday.

Health Sciences Centre chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young said last week that 49-year-old Chad Christopher Giffin was brought to the emergency room by ambulance shortly after midnight last Tuesday. He was triaged as a low-acuity, or non-urgent, patient.

“He was declared dead in a resuscitation room just before 8 a.m, Tuesday, after staff noticed his condition had worsened,” Young said.

Jackson expressed that she now worries about the physical and mental health of some nurses within province and at HSC. They are working in increasingly dire conditions, and are being forced to deal with distressing and often disturbing issues like a man dying in a waiting room.

“To the nurses on shift during this incident; I see you. I understand that this moment will likely stay with you forever,” Jackson said.

“As nurses, we are taught to push through, building a tough exterior just to make it through the day, but beneath it, we carry deep wounds.

“This normalization of crisis is its own tragedy.”

Jackson said she hopes that this incident is a wake up call for the “decision makers” in this province.

“This is not sustainable, Nurses are not machines,” Jackson said. “Their well-being, like the safety of their patients, depends on immediate and meaningful changes to the way our health care system operates.

“To decision-makers: It’s long past time to treat this as the crisis it is. We need real action to address staffing shortages, we need to invest in province-wide safety, and we need to ensure every patient receives the care they need when they need it.”

Jackson also drew comparisons between the Giffin’s death and that of Brian Sinclair, who died in the same waiting room in 2008 after waiting for more than 34 hours without being treated for what was later deemed to be a treatable bladder infection.

An inquest into Sinclair’s death led to a report completed in 2014 that concluded his death was “preventable.” The report put forward 63 recommendations to overhaul parts of Winnipeg’s health care services, including how patients in ERs are triaged and registered.

“For many, this tragedy echoes the devastating loss of Brian Sinclair over a decade ago,” Jackson said.

“Despite the inquest and recommendations, it seems very little has changed. Once again, our health care system has failed to learn, with patients — and the nurses who care for them — bearing the consequences.”

Last week Asagwara said “when the review is fully complete, we will be transparent and open with the public in terms of the findings, and what we learned from this, so we can prevent this from happening in the future. This is a tragedy and a devastating loss that should not have happened.”

This story was originally published in The Winnipeg Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.