Confidence in health system has eroded
Jan. 1, 2009
People should not die like that.
Six simple words, but they speak volumes about the story of a Winnipeg man who died while waiting for care in the emergency ward of the Health Sciences Centre.
The words were uttered last week by Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, Manitoba’s chief medical examiner, following the death of Brian Sinclair. Sinclair died Sept. 21 after waiting 34 hours for treatment of a blocked catheter and a severe bladder infection. He was found slumped in a wheelchair after being ignored by four shifts of health-care workers.
Sinclair’s death prompted Balachandra to order an inquest into the events that led up to it. The inquest is expected to assign blame for what Balachandra says was a preventable death and recommend what measures can be taken to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.
“It’s the people’s hospital and they should have confidence in (it),” Balachandra said about the reasons for calling the inquest.
One can hardly blame Manitobans if their confidence in the health care system isn’t what it should be — or for being skeptical that things will change as a result of the inquest into Sinclair’s death.
After all, it was just four years ago that Premier Gary Doer and Health Minister Theresa Oswald vowed to make changes to the system following recommendations from an emergency-care task force that were aimed at preventing patients from dying in ER waiting rooms. The task force’s recommendations followed the death of a 74-year-old woman who died due to complications from a heart attack while waiting six and a half hours for care in the ER at St. Boniface Hospital.
To his credit, Doer has admitted that not all of the task force’s recommendations have been implemented yet and that the system failed Sinclair.
What makes Sinclair’s story even more tragic is the fact this wasn’t the first time the system failed him. First, he lost both of his legs after they froze when he passed out in a snowbank and no one noticed. Then he was pushed down the stairs outside a church and pelted by concrete blocks. And finally, a nurse wheeled him to a spot in the waiting room at HSC — where he was left to die.
Certainly, Manitobans hope no one else has to die the way Sinclair did. Whatever recommendations come out of the inquest into his death could play a huge role in preventing a similar tragedy from occurring again. Ultimately, though, it will come down to how the health care system reacts to those recommendations that will decide whether or not there is another preventable death.
Based on the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s initial reaction to the Sinclair case — they refused to disclose his name or how he died — one can hardly blame Manitobans for feeling skeptical regarding the possibility for substantive change.
