Number of patient transfers starting to drop, but families say Manitobans shouldn't face this practice

In another sign of COVID-19's diminishing presence in Manitoba, the province's hospitals appear to be transferring fewer patients to health-care facilities far from their home communities and loved ones.

Shared Health says 11 patients were sent outside their regional health authority in the first week of February and 10 patients were transferred the following week.

That's the lowest two-week period since mid-November 2021, shortly after the protocol to transfer patients away from their homes took effect.  

"It's an encouraging trend," Dr. Kristjan Thompson, the president of Doctors Manitoba, said, "but again, this is a scenario that just shouldn't happen.

"If you were to set out and design a health-care system, I don't think anybody would design a process whereby an individual who might be elderly, who might have many chronic illnesses, who might have cognitive impairment is taken hundreds of kilometres away from their loved ones and their families."

Making room for COVID patients

The health system was forced to transfer patients beginning last October to make room for an expected surge in COVID-19 patients, as well as other people with medical issues.

As of Wednesday morning, nearly 300 patients have been transferred.

The highest number of transfers happened the week of Dec. 13 when 41 patients were ushered to another facility. There were also two weeks in December and two weeks in January with more than 34 transfers apiece.

Shared Health explained the number of transfers tend to be fewer in weeks with adverse weather conditions. 

In various media stories, the families impacted by these transfers have decried the practice, which whisked patients — many of them seniors — away from their support network, and sometimes with little warning.

Melissa Carter's father Elias Apalit was transferred from Winnipeg to Minnedosa almost three weeks ago.

Her mother and father were together for 51 years, and have been separated by forces out of their control. It's left Apalit, who has advanced dementia, struggling to understand what's happening, Carter said.

"When you're actually living it and going through it, it almost seems unreal that that this could be happening and that this is how we are treating people who need care, and in our case, a senior citizen and someone who has dementia."

Carter said the family is taking a financial hit. Apalit's wife, Florinda, is spending the week in Minnedosa, where she's spent more than $1,000 on accommodations, groceries and cab fares. Shared Health says it will reimburse families with these costs, but the Apalits' expenses may exceed the provincial cap.

Carter said she's pleased to find the number of patient transfers declining, but the fact it is still happening is distressing.

"Really, that number should be zero," she said.

Manitoba is incrementally rolling back all public health orders, in large part because of the declining stress on the health-care system. The number of COVID cases, hospitalizations and intensive care admissions are all dropping.

But it's clear hospitals are overburdened if transfers to remote communities are ongoing, Carter said.

"If they're saying now that there seems to be less strain on hospitals, why are families still experiencing this?"

The Official Opposition worries the practice, which Shared Health describes as "inter-regional patient transfers," will become the status quo.

"I guess the concern we have going forward is, now that they've started doing this, when is it going to stop? When is the end date? When our folks going to come home?" NDP leader Wab Kinew said.

A Shared Health spokesperson wrote in an email that transfers continue to be necessary to "ensure all Manitobans can access the care they need, even when demand for services is high."

It also encouraged people to get vaccinated and get their third dose to reduce their probability of needing a hospital bed.

Every transfer carefully weighed: province

When asked last week about eliminating COVID-19 restrictions while patients are still being sent to rural communities, health minister Audrey Gordon appeared to downplay the protocol by saying that patients have been transferred for years — which is true, as patients have long been transferred from one Winnipeg health-care facility to another, but never before at the same frequency as this winter.

The Tory minister's office said clinicians weigh numerous factors before evaluating a patient's suitability for transfer, including whether the transportation can take place safely, their specific needs and whether the receiving facility can meet a patient's immediate and ongoing needs.

At least one patient died after being transferred.

Kristina Markus remembers being in tears after learning of her transfer to a facility hundreds of kilometres from her home. She received just two hours' notice, barely enough time for her sister to get there.

Looking back, Markus wishes the medical professionals would have handled and communicated her transfer better. It might have set her mind at ease, she said.

The Winnipegger's two months at Flin Flon General Hospital turned out better than she could have expected.

She received a floral arrangement for Christmas and a cake on her birthday. A woman who saw her story in the news visited the hospital every week, before tougher COVID restrictions prevented that. She's become a "lifelong friend," Markus said.

"When I left Flin Flon hospital, when the ambulance people were wheeling me to the ambulance, they were all shouting at me, 'Goodbye and good luck, and we're going to miss you.' And I was bawling. I was bawling my eyes out, just as much as I was bawling leaving in December."

She hopes to one day make a return to Flin Flon — a trip she planned herself — to say hello again to the people she met.

"They became more like friends at the end."

WATCH | Hospital patient transfers in downward trend:

Hospital patient transfers in downward trend

3 years ago

Duration 2:25

In another sign of COVID-19's diminishing presence in Manitoba, the province's hospitals are transferring fewer patients to health-care facilities far away from their communities and loved ones.