Death of man waiting for care at Health Sciences Centre ER being investigated as critical incident
Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin CEO says review won't explore possible role of racism, socioeconomic factors
The province has ordered a critical incident investigation into the death of a man waiting for care at a Winnipeg hospital emergency room on Tuesday morning, but one doctor says the investigation isn't likely to explore the role factors like discrimination may have played.
The middle-aged man, who hasn't been publicly identified, spent about eight hours waiting to be seen at the Health Sciences Centre emergency department before he died.
"This is a tragedy and a devastating loss that should not have happened," Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference announcing the investigation.
Asagwara said they asked for the death to be investigated as a critical incident, and that it will be treated with the "highest level of urgency."
"We are going to learn from this critical incident review being done and we are going to make sure that we take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in future," they said.
A critical incident is defined by the province as a case where a patient suffers "serious and unintended harm" while receiving health care. Critical incident reviews involve a report with recommendations on how the system can improve to avoid future incidents.
But Dr. Barry Lavallee, CEO of the Indigenous health organization Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin Inc., said such a report won't examine the role racism and socioeconomic status may have played in the man's death.
No details have been released about the man who died, other than the fact he was middle aged.
But "I don't see a lot of white people dying after eight hours in [the] emergency room," said Lavallee.
The case is already drawing parallels with the death of Brian Sinclair, an Indigenous man who died after languishing for 34 hours in the same ER waiting room in 2008.
When asked by reporters on Wednesday, Asagwara declined to comment on whether the man who died Tuesday was Indigenous or a member of any other vulnerable community.
Lavallee, who was part of a group that explored the role of racism in Sinclair's death, said stereotypes contributed to limiting the treatment he was given despite having a bladder infection that went septic.
Those stereotypes are still embedded in health care, Lavallee said, and can be "deadly for First Nation people" when mixed with the power of a health-care provider able to decide who receives care and how.
"It's easy to let go of your responsibility when they're considered less in society," he said.
Since Sinclair's death, Lavallee said he hasn't seen a change in how socially constructed racism has become the "most deadly determinant of health for First Nations."
He said he's surprised there haven't been even more cases like Sinclair's, but added that there have been cases where patients didn't die, but did have unnecessary amputations, or took their own lives after they weren't treated for depression.
"The death of this gentleman, should he be First Nations, [is] part of that story," said Lavallee.
Findings will be 'transparent and open': Asagwara
On Tuesday, Health Science Centre chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young said the man was brought to the emergency room by ambulance shortly after midnight and was triaged as a low-acuity patient. He was declared dead in a resuscitation room just before 8 a.m., after staff noticed his condition had worsened.
Young said the emergency room was well over capacity in the night leading up to the man's death, but staffing was close to a baseline level.
In November, the last month for which data is publicly available, HSC reported a median wait of 3.8 hours at its emergency department. Ten per cent of patients waited more than 13 hours for care.
Shared Health told CBC News in a statement Wednesday that until the critical incident review is done, it will not speculate on what issues may have contributed to the man's death.
Asagwara said Wednesday the province will continue to work on health-care staffing and will apply what is learned from the investigation.
"Critical incident reviews do take time," but when it is complete, the province will be "transparent and open with the public in terms of the findings, what we learn from this, so we can prevent this from happening in future," they said.
A preliminary report is expected within the next couple of weeks.
Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative health critic, said the Opposition party will push the NDP government to make that preliminary report public as soon as possible.
Premier Wab Kinew has said in the past that Manitobans need to have confidence they'll get good care at emergency rooms, Cook said, and "restoring that confidence will mean making the details of that investigation public."
Doctors and nurses have warned for months about the "dire" situation of ERs across the province, but Manitoba has yet to see any substantive action from the NDP to deal with issues like staffing shortages, she said.
But Lavallee said the man's death can't simply be explained by overcrowded ERs. He maintains the man was clearly ignored.
WATCH |Overcapacity not to blame for death, says Lavallee:
"This one man … needed some help. If you couldn't hear him asking for help, then you were the problem," Lavallee said.
"You can't blame people for being poor and blame them that the health-care system is falling apart because we have a lot of poor people. That is absolutely unethical and absurd in its analysis."
With files from Ian Froese