Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 5, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A3 email:ryan@kenscarpets.ca | www.kenscarpets.ca • AREA RUGS • CARPETS • HARDWOODS • LAMINATE • CERAMICS • VINYL & WINDOW COVERINGS • LUXURY VINYL PLANK Ken’s Carpets& URBAN HOMESTYLE CENTRE Flooring Winnipeg since 1965 730 Archibald 233-0697 Click Stone Core Plank (with attached pad) $1.99 sqft 3975 Portage Ave ASDowns.com 204-885-3330 ● Easter & Mother’s Day Brunch tickets on sale now ● Friday Steak & Saturday Rib specials - $24.95 Wager on top tracks at ASD, Off-track locations & HPIbet.com (Wager 24/7 at HPIbet.com) 140 VLTs open daily from 10 am to 1 am (VLTs are sanitized between use) ● Reservations now open for Live Race Night Buffets. Racing begins Mon, May 23 Spring Sunday Markets March 20 & April 10 11 am - 4 pm NEW! SPRING EDITION SHOP 60 LOCAL VENDORS Free admission & free parking Follow us on TOPNEWS ASSOCIATE EDITOR NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A3 SATURDAYMARCH 5, 2022 J OAN Hodgson has been in a hospitalbed 350 kilometres from home fornearly three months because of a broken leg. The 80-year-old hasn’t been able to see family or friends and has no idea when she’ll be able to return to herWin- nipeg home. “I had no choice. I had nothing with me, no clothes, no shoes, no money, no nothing,” Hodgson said of the transfer. She spoke to the Free Press via a di- rect phone line from her hospital bed Friday. Hodgson said she’s struggling in an unfamiliar place, but has been receiv- ing good care from the nurses at the Russell Health Centre. “I’m still up in Russell because there’s nowhere for me to go,” she said. “I’m at a bit of a loss to know what to do to get anything done. Oh dear, it’s so difficult for me, and it’s difficult for me to explain.” Her 46-year-old son, Chris, who was her primary caregiver, died last month. Hodgson hadn’t seen him since she was admitted to hospital in late December. Then, she was airlifted Jan. 12 from Concordia Hospital to the Russell Health Centre — one of 305 Manito- bans transferred to facilities outside their home community to free up beds for COVID-19 patients during the pan- demic’s fourth wave fuelled by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Her daughter, Kate Hodgson, lives in Vancouver. She’s raising concerns about a lack of oversight and communication for trans- ferred patients who still don’t know when they’ll go home despite declining coronavirus hospitalization numbers. She’s worried her mother is “getting lost in the system.” “To not be able to see her, but worse yet to feel like there is no one oversee- ing her case or these other cases, and to know there’s an indifference in the sys- tem as to what happens, it’s heartbreak- ing. My nightmare scenario is… are we going to lose her before we can get back there?” Kate told the Free Press Friday. “The leg is one thing, but the isola- tion for these months, I think, has had a massive negative impact on her emo- tional health and mental health, and that’s not fair. That is not OK. “It would be different for her if peo- ple were communicating a plan to her and to me, but it seems like a lot of overworked and very stressed workers trying to navigate a system that nobody seems in charge of.” In a statement, a Shared Health spokesperson said hospital bed avail- ability is closely monitored so trans- ferred patients can return to their home community “as soon as needs subside elsewhere in the system and an appro- priate bed is available.” The statement didn’t address specif- ics about the process to return trans- ferred patients or to ensure they get appropriate treatment away fromhome. Shared Health could not say how many of the transferred patients have returned to their home region. “Patients leaving or returning toWin- nipeg who require low-acuity transport are being moved by local EMS, con- tracted stretcher services or a dedicat- ed basic air ambulance. We note that poor road conditions due to unfavour- able weather this winter has, at times, resulted in the postponement of some transports,” the Shared Health said. After Hodgson was admitted to Con- cordia, a follow-up appointment to as- sess her leg’s healing and determine care requirements was booked for her Feb. 1 at a Winnipeg clinic. The appointment was cancelled, re- booked and cancelled again because she had no transportation. Kate said health officials’ plan was to have her mother transported by road to Winnipeg and back to Russell the same day, but the service wasn’t available. “To move an 80-year-old woman 41/2 hours from Rus- sell to Winnipeg, and then drive her 41/2 hours back was their plan? Who would do that?” After a month-long delay, Hodgson received her assessment remotely Fri- day viaMBTelehealth, but was told only she’ll need to wait a fewmore weeks for another X-ray, her daughter said, add- ing Hodgson is immobile and unable to bear any weight on her leg. “There’s still no plan for her to re- turn,” Kate said, adding her family plans to travel to Winnipeg this month. They haven’t been able to visit sooner because of COVID-19 outbreaks at the Russell Health Centre. Kate said her brother Chris, who worked as a health-care aide in a seniors home and twice contracted the virus on the job, had a difficult time physically and mentally after their mother was transferred to Russell. He died Feb. 5. Taking people away from their sup- port systems, even in a pandemic, has a “massive toll,” she said. “Both my mom and my brother were critical supports to each other, and he definitely was doing worse when she was in hospital, and it was breaking his heart not being able to see her. “I think there would be very different outcomes for both of them right now if it wasn’t for COVID and ifwe had systems that worked in a better way, and were funded in a much more robust way.” In the past week, nine Manitoba pa- tients have been transferred to other health regions and there are current- ly no plans to end Manitoba’s inter-re- gional patient transfer protocol. David Matear, co-commander of the prov- ince’s COVID-19 incident command team, has said the policy was in place before the pandemic, to a lesser extent, and will continue. “Obviously, it’s not desirable for pa- tients to be moved far away from home, and that is an issue that we recognize,” Matear said last month. “We appreciate the understanding of families and patients and residents as we go through this and being able to maintain patient flow in our system.” katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com ‘Nightmare scenario’ for senior KATIE MAY 80-year-old with broken leg moved to Russell in January; no one knows when she’ll get home toWinnipeg MASK use will no longer be mandated in Manitoba schools, as of March 15. The province revealed the change in an email late Friday. “Effective March 15, masks will no longer be required in indoor places, this includes schools and child care facilities. As mask requirements are removed, it is important to note that anyone can continue to choose to wear masks, based on their individual risk and personal preference,” the email says. The Manitoba Teachers’ Society responded by saying it’s too soon to remove the COVID-19 pandemic mask mandate. It said it believes masks “should continue to be provided, as they have been an import- ant part of mitigating risk over the past two years... (Masks) add a prudent and effective layer of protection against an unpredictable virus. Many Manitobans are immunocompro- mised and rely on all of us for protection.” The end of pandemic restrictions and a return to normal needs to proceed “with the utmost caution, guided by science. The medical community continues to advocate for masks as a measure that reduces risk. For this reason, the society feels that lifting the mask mandate is premature,” MTS said. Earlier this week, Premier Heather Stefan- son said the province is in a transition period in the pandemic response and Manitobans want to move on. “By all means, people can still wear masks if they want to, businesses can still require proof of vaccine if they want to,” Stefanson said. “It’s going to take a little while to get used to this.” The province has announced self-isolation rules for people who contract COVID-19 will be removed as of March 15. Instead, it will only recommend people self-isolate. Also as of March 15, the province will stop COVID-19 case investigations. It will still notify people who test posi- tive, but won’t try to figure out how they contracted the virus or who they might have transmitted it to. School maskmandate to endMarch 15 SUPPLIED Joan Hodgson broke her leg in Winnipeg in December, and has been in hospital in Russell for nearly three months. Her son and primary caregiver, Chris, died in Winnipeg in February. Hodgson with daughter Kate Hodgson and one of her grandchildren ‘I’m still up in Russell because there’s nowhere for me to go. I’m at a bit of a loss to knowwhat to do to get anything done’ A_03_Mar-05-22_FP_01.indd 3 2022-03-04 10:26 PM ;