December 14, 2021

Treaty 1 and Dakota Territory, Homeland of the Red River Metis, Winnipeg MB—A provincial ICU bed tracker that shows capacity and staffing levels in Manitoba’s major ICU units proves just how critical the situation has become.

“This tracker shows just how dire a situation this really is. Right now, there are just a handful of available beds across our ICU units, and the same number of patients waiting to be admitted in,” said NDP Leader Wab Kinew. “Looking at this chart, it’s immediately obvious we are in a crisis— yet the PC Leader has spent much of her time as Premier maintaining Brian Pallister’s status quo. The call for help from the federal government should have come a long time ago.”

A live tracking tool called the Critical Care Bed Census ‘whiteboard’ shows up-to-the-minute status of ICU beds in Winnipeg and Brandon including the number of open, staffed beds, the number of vacant beds, the number of ventilated and non-ventilated patients, how many are ‘transferrable’, the number of admissions pending and the number of nurses working.

The tracker shows Manitoba’s ICU units operating at near-capacity. There are very few empty beds with the same number of patients waiting to be admitted in, and even more being housed ‘off-unit’. It also reflects the critically ill nature of these patients, with very few if any able to be transferred. The number of nurses staffing the beds show how these units have been forced to drop a one-to-one standard of care.

“Anyone who saw these numbers, and heard the concerns from doctors, nurses and patients, should feel a responsibility to fix it,” said Kinew. “The PC Leader can’t hide from the damage her government has caused, and her silence is only making it worse.”