Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/12/2017 (1013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometime in August, a Manitoba politician went to Concordia Hospital for care — and was treated to an earful.

Politicians are making poor decisions when it comes to health care, an anxious hospital employee told the MLA who, in turn, reported the interaction to the Winnipeg hospital’s chief executive officer.

"As a patient under our care, he felt extremely ‘vulnerable’ given his role as a politician," CEO Valerie Wiebe wrote in an Aug. 23 memo to staff obtained by the Free Press through a freedom-of-information request.

The MLA’s political affiliation isn’t known.

The incident was not the first time Wiebe had heard from a patient or family member who felt "very uneasy with some of the negative comments made by staff to them about the health-care system." But it was the most recent in a string of incidents that, at the time she wrote her memo, seemed to be increasing.

Workers were told to remember professional boundaries. "Our patients and their families require our full attention and care, even during times of change and disruption," Wiebe wrote.

That a health-care worker might speak up comes as no surprise to local union leaders, even three months after the memo was sent. In fact, they don’t think such outbursts are limited to Concordia Hospital or that they’ve stopped.

"I would be shocked to find out that if an MLA happened to be sitting in a bed, somebody wouldn’t make a comment," said Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union.

"What I’m getting back from our members is that (they’ll take) any opportunity they have to try to explain to the government in any way, shape or form that they can no longer provide the level of care that they were so proud to be able to give."

It stems from feeling their concerns have been ignored, Gawronsky said, a sense a whole system is being transformed under the feet of front-line workers without their input.

It’s indicative of botched communication during Phase 1 of the province’s health-care overhaul, said Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union.

"The concerns, all along, on behalf of the nurses, have been really around the lack of information about the changes," she said, and what effect that has on patients.

When will a unit close, which health-care jobs will be affected and how many staff and when? If patients have to be transferred, when will they be transferred? All at once? Staggered?

Even though Mowat doesn’t agree with the restructuring, she said the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority should learn from communication errors in Phase 1 and be more clear with staff as Phase 2 begins in the spring.

"We have more time this time to actually do a better job of making sure that all the parties that are involved actually know what the game plan is," she said.

Concordia Hospital, in particular, she said, would benefit.

The hospital will lose its emergency department in the spring. Misinformation about the closure has been so rampant in recent months that the facility’s website reminds the public it has not yet closed.

"Concordia Hospital emergency room is currently open to serve you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," is written prominently on the facility’s home page. "The information provided in the media indicating that Concordia emergency room is currently closed is incorrect. Concordia emergency room is not diverting ambulances or patients to other sites."

The WRHA has been working with unions in a bid to "minimize disruption," the health authority’s interim president and CEO, Réal Cloutier, said. And while Cloutier wants staff to have a voice, he drew the line at any discussions or behaviour that might negatively affect patient care.

"We recognize that these changes are the subject of discussion and debate," he said in a statement. "We welcome those discussions and we encourage our staff to raise any concerns they might have with their supervisors."

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca