Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 20, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A4 A 4 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014 MANITOBA winnipegfreepress. com HOME DELIVERY 1- 800- 542- 8900 Call 2 0 4 6 9 7 7 1 0 0 RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF EAST ST. PAUL Under The Planning Act NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Regarding Zoning By- law Amendment 2012- 15 The Council of the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul under the authority of The Planning Act will hold a Public Hearing for the above by- law at the Municipal Office, Unit 1 - 3021 Birds Hill Rd., East St. Paul, Manitoba on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 5: 45 p. m. at which time and place the Council will receive representation and objections, if any, from any persons who wish to make them with respect to By- law No. 2012- 15 being an amendment to the RM of East St. Paul Zoning By- law 2009- 04. The general intent of the by- law amendment is to include a new single- family residential zone within the East St. Paul Zoning Bylaw, which will be: R1- 8 Single Housing Dwelling Zone A copy of the above By- law and supporting material may be inspected by any person between 8: 30 a. m. and 4: 15 p. m., Monday through Friday at the Red River Planning District office at 806- A Manitoba Avenue, Selkirk, MB. This notice has been prepared on behalf on the RM of East St. Paul by Derek Eno, Community Planning, who may be contacted for further information as follows: Red River Planning District, 806- A Manitoba Avenue, Selkirk, MB, R1A 2H4 Ph: 482- 3717 - Fax: 482- 3799 - email: deno@ rrpd. ca THE Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society ( STARS) helicopter air ambulance service should be back in the air in the very near future, a spokesman said Wednesday. That depends on when a revised review of 16 cases STARS has handled is submitted. " Manitobans deserve to have every confidence in the quality of service we offer," STARS spokesman Colin Fast said. " We're committed to making any changes needed to enhance our service in this province." The province suspended operations of STARS Dec. 2 after three critical incidents in less than a year, including the death of a female patient with cardiac arrest three days earlier. Each incident involved issues with intubation and proper delivery of oxygen. The province ordered an external review of 16 cases involving STARS and contracted Dr. Stephen Wheeler of the B. C. Ambulance Service Air Ambulance Program to do it. Wheeler submitted his initial report in December, but STARS officials balked, citing several inaccuracies. " We do have concerns about the draft report from Dr. Wheeler, and we're providing additional information required to finish his work," Fast said. For example, the draft report - leaked to CBC - cited a case where a female STARS patient ran out of oxygen on a flight and later died. STARS says when the crew recognized the tank was low, they changed it and they never ran out of oxygen. Wheeler's report also said the nurses and paramedics on STARS lack adequate training and experience, compared to other air medical transport programs across the country, to work in the air medical environment. STARS disputes that, saying the training nurses and paramedics get in Manitoba is the same in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where the service also operates. " Providing excellent patient care, with an emphasis on safety, will always be our top priority," Fast said. The 16 cases wheeler reviewed were jointly selected by both STARS and Manitoba Health. When completed, information from the report that doesn't infringe on patient confidentiality will be released publicly The STARS service in Manitoba is the only one of its kind in North America known to have been temporarily suspended because of concerns over patient safety. STARS has also operated in eastern B. C. for a number of years from its Alberta base in Grande Prairie, flying critical- care patients to trauma hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton. Its presence in B. C. has opened a debate whether a version of the notfor- profit STARS service should expand into northern B. C. instead of the publicly funded B. C. Ambulance Service Air Ambulance service, which contracts out medical helicopter operations to private firms. The same debate has been heard in Manitoba, including whether the provincial funding of STARS could be better spent on improving ground emergency medical services in rural Manitoba. The Selinger government and STARS signed a 10- year agreement, worth $ 10 million per year, in February 2012 for the Alberta- based organization to provide helicopter air ambulance services in southern Manitoba. STARS is also funded through corporate, community and individual donations. B RIAN Sinclair died after 36 hours of sitting in the Health Sciences Centre's emergency waiting room without getting care after not being triaged. Now an official with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says Sinclair might still have waited hours in the emergency room even if he'd been triaged when he arrived. Dr. Alecs Chochinov, the WRHA's director of the emergency program, told an inquest Wednesday emergency room patients are ranked on a scale of one to five with one being the most critically ill and five needing a prescription. Chochinov told provincial court Judge Tim Preston based on what he knows about Sinclair's condition when he arrived in hospital on Sept. 19, 2008, he likely would have been ranked a three at the highest, meaning he was deemed urgent like a person with appendicitis, but not as critical as a person suffering a heart attack. That doesn't mean Sinclair would have got through the treatment area to a hospital bed quickly. Chochinov said the WRHA is " struggling" to meet its targets of eight hours to be treated in emergency and admitted into hospital, and four hours to be treated in emergency and out onto the street for a non- admitted patient. Chochinov said after a person is treated in emergency, " they can wait days" to be admitted beyond emergency into the hospital. " They are most at risk in our system," he said. " They can be in a stretcher for hours or days. ( Sinclair) didn't have a serious complaint ( when he came in). He is an example of a person put back in the queue in a busy emergency department." Sinclair had a suspected blocked urinary catheter and 36 hours after arriving at HSC, he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found Sinclair died of a treatable bladder infection. Sinclair's death sparked major changes in the waiting room in which he died. Laverne Sturtevant, the WRHA's director of patient services, showed many of the changes through a video played in the courtroom. " The video reflects a lot of care and compassion from nurses, physicians ( and other staff)," Sturtevant said. The video showed the changes come immediately after entering the department. Where Sinclair had been shown in earlier video footage being rolled through a large open area at the entrance by a taxi driver, a security guard is now stationed there to ask if they are there for medical care, while another large desk, with a community service worker, is stationed in front of the three triage desks. There, a green arm band will be put on a person seeking treatment before they have been triaged. To the side, in front of the triage desks, are several seats for people waiting to be triaged. Once the patient is there, the green arm band is cut off and a white one is put on, along with a blue one if they are to be treated in the minortreatment area. After being triaged, patients go to the regular waiting area where people also used to wait. Now the chairs face open nursing desks where they can be watched for any changes in health. And at the extreme west end of the waiting area, where a passageway once allowed people to go in and out of the main hospital through the emergency room, there is now a door allowing only access into the hospital, but not back into emergency. While hospital staff said at the time Sinclair died, many people would be in the area for reasons other than treatment, Sturtevant said security guards will now ask them if they are there to receive treatment and, if not, direct them elsewhere in the hospital. She said every hour a computer spits out the names of people still in the waiting room and nurses go out to assess each of them. Sturtevant said the physical changes in the room are helping people get triaged faster. While it took 23 minutes on average for a person walking into the hospital to get triaged two months after Sinclair died, Sturtevant said it now takes 6.9 minutes on average. kevin. rollason@ freepress. mb. ca STARS back in air once report filed Province ordered review of air ambulance Doctor says Sinclair urgent, not critical By Kevin Rollason Even if triaged, patient may have waited hours WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES STARS was suspended Dec. 2, 2013. Dr. Chochinov A number of changes have been made to the HSC emergency room since Brian Sinclair died. A_ 06_ Feb- 20- 14_ FP_ 01. indd A4 2/ 19/ 14 10: 01: 35 PM ;