Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 6, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Sunday free press Winnipeg july 6, 1997 a5 an emergency in Brandon hospitals stressed or desperate for doctor doctors nurses mop up a nights crises by Andrew Maxwell for the free press Hospital orderly Martin Woodland drops off Sample to medical lab technician april Kennedy at Brandon general. Able to offer doctors a lifestyle and pay scale that will attract them to work Mcintosh would like the province to provide enough Money to fund five or salaries of about $140,000 a year. The Manitoba medical association has offered to pay Brandon doctors $70 an hour to be available to cover or shifts but or. Andrew Seitz said Money is not the main Issue. A i cover so Many areas a he said. A a in a a family doctor i pay regular visits out to the base at Shilo i have patients i see in nursing Homes and i deliver babies. A a it a More a matter of time. I done to have enough to do it with no doctor physically in the or heavy workloads and High stress Levels Are passed on to the handful of nurses who run the department. Free press correspondents Leah Janzen and Andrew Maxwell spent Friday evening in two of Manitoba s Hospital emergency rooms a Janzen at Brandon general Hospital and Maxwell at seven Oaks general Hospital in Winnipeg. The free press wanted to compare the two ers in Light of the ongoing War of words Between the province and Brandon doctors Over proper funding to hire full time or physicians such As those employed in Winnipeg hospitals. Brandon doctors partially withdrew their or services last week Over the Issue. A if a person comes in clutching their Chest there is Only so much As nurses that we can do Quot said in Shelley Yorke As a ringing Buzzer alerted her to another new patient late Friday night. A people expect when they come to emergency there will be a doctor there to treat them. They Are often quite shocked and offended when they find out there eleven treatment Bays and five observation Beds need constant attention. Breaks Are rare and taken quickly. A people look at nights like tonight when its quiet and assume we obviously done to need full time doctors a Yorke said. A there Are nights when this place is non Stop. You never know what a going to walk through the patients who rely on the care they get at Brandon general would also like to see an or that is always staffed by a doctor. A Brandon is not a Small City anymore a said Maria Viegas As she wait j de for treatment for dizziness and pains in her Chest. A a in be been Here four times in the last six months and i would like to know there would be a doctor Here when i need Mcintosh said Manitoba health officials have agreed to evaluate j Brandon general As soon As possible j and he Hopes a satisfactory agreement can be reached. 4 to to of do you know if your legs in i broken a asks a dazed 25-year-Aoid Man who just staggered through the automatic door of the seven Oaks general hospitals emergency room at 2 10 . Yesterday. Nurse Gale Candy quizzes him about the events that left him a wobbly bleeding mess. A i was climbing up outside my old lady a place a he explains adding he fell four storeys off a Balcony and a woke up on he crawled a few blocks then managed to walk a few More to the or he later explains. The Young would be Romeo is the 26th patient to enter the or since 7 ., and offers a hint of the booze inspired mayhem the or typically mops up in the wee hours of a saturday morning. Or. Mike Shymchyk determines the Man has no broken Bones but prescribes a tetanus shot and Tensor bandages and urges him to return the next morning for a rays. A we done to have a Ray Here this time of the morning a he tells the Man who limps off into the night. This Friday night and saturday morning Are atypically slow with just about half the usual traffic staff explain. During the eight hours Between 7 And 3 ., 74 patients Are looked at with no serious crises to be dealt with. There Are no cardiac arrests car wreck victims or drug overdoses. The most popular diagnosis of the night is congestive heart failure in several older patients. One highlight is a glowering 19-year-old Man who punched out a window in his Home. He arrives in Handcuffs with a police escort and is Phil Hossack Winnipeg free press heated tot cuts to his . City. Police explain a computer search seven Oaks emergency nurse Gale Candy tends to a patient. Revealed outstanding warrants for doctor examines a rays at seven Oaks general Hospital. Offences outside Winnipeg. After treatment he a off in a squad car to the Winnipeg remand Centre. Not Long after Shymchyk and Candy stand at the Eros front desk staring absently at the wards front doors As if puzzled by the Lack of action. A this is wonderful a Shymchyk had commented earlier of the sustained Lull. A but it wont last a he incorrectly predicted. The Odd quiet night is a rare Reward for the unpredictability of the Job and Strain of shift work says or. Moises Lasalete a seven year Veteran of the or. A just when you think everything a Fine All hell Breaks Loose a he says adding Only one or two critical patients can occupy a physician and slow Down the whole process. Neighbourhood bars consistently add a touch of mayhem he adds. The seven Oaks or also caters to the a High ratio of older people in the area a says charge nurse Donna Johnston. A a common diagnosis is failure to Cope a she adds enjoying a cigarette in the nearby courtyard. The term basically describes a senior whose support system has collapsed she explains. A the family a stressed out. And they re just not Able to take care of staff Deal with the broken Bones from a fall or even malnutrition and try to find the appropriate longer term care for the patient says Johnston. Even minor cases not requiring a doctors attention illustrate that an emergency is in the Eye of the beholder. A clearly shaken 12-year-old Shauna Swan brushes tears from her eyes As she and father Bernard Monkman arrive at the desk. Her left Index Finger is swollen and red because her ring is stuck. A touch ouch ouch. Put me to sleep a the squirming patient urges Johnston who is wrapping string to reduce swelling in the now dark Brown digit while tugging the ring Forward bit by bit. A now. Thank you a Shauna says after the procedure is done and her dad flings the cheap ring into the trash. By Leah Janzen for the free press Brandon by the time or. Farhang Eshaghian arrived at the emergency room at Brandon general Hospital to begin his 12-hour Friday night shift he had already put in a full Day treating patients at his private practice. A fridays turn into 24-hour work Days for me Quot he said. A but i believe there needs to be a doctor on site so i do Eshaghian is just one of about 30 family doctors in this City of 40,000 who regularly cover or shifts at the Hospital. Without them there would be no doctor immediately available to treat or patients suffering anything from cuts and sprains to full scale heart attacks and life threatening injuries. In fact a staff Calendar for the rest of july is marked by 14 Blank spaces a Days and nights when no doctor has signed up to cover the or. A if you have a major problem on those Days the doctor will have to come in from Home a said Eshaghian. A in acute cases like heart attacks the sooner you can begin treatment the better. Delays while nurses wait for the doctor Arentt because Brandon general is the Only Hospital in the area staff see their fair share of cases from the most serious to those Only needing a stitch or two. In a 24-hour period Friday the or staff consisting of one doctor and three or four nurses attended to 79 patients. Eight of those were emergency cases. Of those 79, to were admitted for a longer stay in one of the hospitals 299 Beds. Eshaghian a 9 To 9 . Shift is a quiet one this week marked by a couple dozen patients in need of stitches children with ear infections and a woman complaining of dizziness and tightness in her Chest. One patient Cut his own head open with a Beer bottle and another dropped in to close a Cut received while he worked at a local restaurant. While this night does not produce any life threatening injuries Many shifts do. In fiscal 1995-96, Brandon general registered 27,802 emergency room Phil Hossack Winnipeg free press or. Farhang Eshaghian talks with patient Maria Viegas in Brandon general ser on Friday. Eshaghian also a family doctor with his own practice says fridays Are 24-hour work Days for him. Visits. Seven Oaks general Hospital in Winnipeg saw 26,500 or patients during the same period. A i would also venture to say that we see More acute or serious cases Here than they do at Community hospitals in the City Winnipeg a said Gary Mcintosh acting executive director of Brandon general Hospital. A in Winnipeg if you Are in a serious health crisis you will be taken to health sciences Centre or St. Boniface Hospital. Here we Are All there since last monday in an Effort to Call attention to their need for full time emergency room physicians Brandon doctors have partially withdrawn their or services treating Only those w to Are patients of a Brandon doctor. The heart of the Issue is whether Brandon general is a big City Hospital or a Rural Hospital. The Brandon doctors want the province to provide funding to hire full time emergency room physicians similar to those employed in Winnipeg hospitals such As seven Oaks. But the province has lumped the Brandon Hospital into the same category As hospitals in Steinbach and Dauphin where doctors from other specialities Are asked to work shifts in the emergency room. A we believe we need five full time emergency room doctors to staff the or 24 hours a Day seven Days a week a said Mcintosh. A we need to be ;