ManitobaDozens of people were in hospitals waiting for a space in a personal care home over a six-week period this summer, according to Winnipeg Regional Health Authority numbers.’They’re like a signal of the rest of the health-care system, a canary in the coal mine’Alana Cole · CBC News · Posted: Sep 29, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoAn ambulance arrives at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. The number of patients waiting in hospitals for care home beds is adding to emergency wait times, Doctors Manitoba says. (Trevor Brine/CBC)Dozens of people were in hospitals waiting for a space in a personal care home over a six-week period this summer — including one week when 89 hospital patients required a care home bed, according to Winnipeg Regional Health Authority numbers. Delay in discharging patients who no longer require acute care in hospital is just one of the many factors that can lead to emergency department wait times, because it can contribute to the struggle to move patients from emergency beds to other wards for care, Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets said.”We have excellent personal care home physicians who specialize in that type of care. A busy hospital is not a restful place for that person to live,” Desilets said. Reports submitted to Manitoba Health from the Winnipeg health region show over a six-week period from Aug. 6 to Sept. 16, the number of people per week waiting in hospital for a personal care home placement ranged from 61 to 89, with each week marking a five-year high.In two of the six weeks, the number was more than double that of previous years listed.The weekly summaries also show the number of people waiting in the community for a personal care home bed, and the number of residents who received a place in care homes that week. CBC spoke with Desilets following reports of long wait times at some Winnipeg emergency departments, including one physician who said he knew of patients who had waited more than 20 to access care. “It’s not just that it’s a one-off long wait time, you know, a bad day, a bad week. It’s that consistent everyday pattern,” said Desilets. Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets says there’s no short answer when it comes to what causes long emergency wait times in hospitals. (Submitted by Doctors Manitoba)There’s no short answer to why wait times have gotten longer, she said.The reasons range from people not being able to access timely and equitable care from a family physician to a need for more hospital bed capacity to not enough community resources, such as home care and personal care home beds, she explained.”ER wait times are a bit, they’re like a signal of the rest of the health-care system, a canary in the coal mine,” said Desilets. “This represents a health-care system that isn’t currently equipped to meet patient needs.” Laurie Cerqueti, CEO of Winnipeg personal care home the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre, told CBC improving long term care is critical to addressing emergency wait times.Laurie Cerqueti, CEO of the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre, says fixing long term care will help take the stress off emergency departments. (Trevor Brine/CBC)”I don’t think we’re going to fix the issues in acute care with emergency rooms being backed up until we fix home care, until we fix the long term care system, and once we start doing that, I think that will start improving the wait times,” she said.There are 124 licensed personal care homes in Manitoba and a total of 9,597 beds, according to Manitoba Shared Health, the organization that oversees health-care delivery in the province.There are 5,294 licensed personal care home beds in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, a spokesperson said. The health authority wouldn’t say how many people were living in a personal care home five or 10 years ago. Cerqueti said while plans have been announced to add 90 beds to Park Manor Personal Care Home in Transcona, that won’t be complete until 2028. A 95-bed facility in Lac du Bonnet is scheduled to open in 2027. “I don’t think there’s been that many beds being added to the system, and it doesn’t seem to be keeping up with demand based on what we’re seeing, as far as people waiting in the hospital, people waiting in the community,” Cerqueti said. Winnipeg emergency room wait times ‘appalling,’ ER doctor says Long ER wait times continue to frustrate patients in Winnipeg A joint statement from the government and the Winnipeg health authority acknowledged the problem.”We know emergency and urgent care wait times remain too long, and that is frustrating for patients, families, and staff,” the statement said.WATCH | There’s no single fix for long emergency waits, people who work in health care say:What causes long emergency waits? There’s no short answerThe president of Doctors Manitoba says shortages of personal care home beds, doctors and bed capacity in hospitals are among the factors contributing to long emergency waits. A joint statement from the provincial government and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says there’s a team working to reduce bottlenecks. The email highlighted initiatives “to reduce bottlenecks, speed up admissions and discharges, and strengthen alternatives to emergency care,” led by the province’s Lower Wait Times and System Improvement Team.To relieve pressure and improve patient flow, the province added 1,295 new front-line staff, “alongside over 240 fully staffed hospital beds, including 96 new transitional care beds since May 2024,” the statement said.Other initiatives include physician assessments taking place in ER waiting rooms, improvements in admissions so emergency patients can be transferred faster and the opening of four extended hours clinics and two minor injury clinics. Manitoba adds 68 transitional beds to free up emergency department space New team will work to slash ER wait times, Manitoba government says The average length of stay for patients admitted to an ER, which measures the time it takes for a registered patient to be moved to an inpatient bed, is 18.8 hours across Winnipeg, which is a decrease from 22 to 23 hours late last year, the statement said. It also said Winnipeg hospitals are making gains when it comes to patient flow in hospitals.The statement said 68 per cent of 222 personal care home beds that were closed have reopened. Manitoba adds record net number of new doctors, boosted by international grads: physicians’ college Cerqueti has other ideas for reducing stress on hospitals and care homes, including enhanced home care that keeps people at home longer, supportive housing that offers a higher level of care than assisted living and purchasing homes in the community where staff can care for smaller groups of seniors.Desilets said while the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba annual report showed the province had just added a record net number of new doctors, the No. 1 thing she hears from physicians is there continues to be a need for more doctors. “No matter what discipline of medicine, no matter who you talk to, I don’t know of a physician who doesn’t feel like they could clone themselves and still have enough work to do,” she said.ABOUT THE AUTHORAlana Cole is a reporter at CBC Manitoba. Email: alana.cole@cbc.ca
ER wait times show health-care system not meeting needs of patients, Doctors Manitoba president says
