I volunteered in the Emergency Room where a Winnipeg man diedin 2008 after waiting 34 hours for treatment. I wasn’t there when it happened, but I am at least superficially familiar with the unique challenges of managing an inner city emergency room environment.
There are the indigent, the chronic, the intoxicated, and the damaged, who for better or for worse, however they got there, depend on the compassion of those around them. And the staff of the Health Sciences Centre Emergency Room are among the most hardworking, diligent, and compassionate people I’ve met. But – they aren’t perfect, and the system isn’t perfect, and someone was missed and died. I’ve seen the changes that followed in the emergency room – new policies, procedures, and staff, right down to changes to the layout of the ER so that people cannot physically be in the waiting room without having checked in, brighter lights to discourage sleeping, and so on.
All of which is why the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s (WHRA’s) new move to have the case against the hospital dismissed – on the grounds that the dead don’t have charter rights – is shameful. It might be an example of budgetary prudence or toothless legal posturing, but its a slap in the face to the family of the deceased, to the people at hospital who are working hard to deliver care to those who need it, and to every Manitoban who has compassion in their soul.
Finally, its an embarassment to the WRHA itself, and all of the kind, decent people who undoubtedly work there. The WRHA has not endeared itself of late to the people it is supposed to serve: it has been roundly criticized for being a bloated bureaucracy, and for not dealing effectively with many of the health care challenges in the city. The WHRA had an opportunity with the Brian Sinclair story to show some humility.
Regardless of whether you think the family deserves a payout or not, and however just or unjust the family’s claims, the WHRA is doing no-one a service with their current defence, least of all themselves.
To quote some commenters from the Free Press:
“Mr. Sinclair was probably a lot of things, but unworthy of medical treatment, I think not.” Citizen 204
“Remind me to sue the WHRA for wrongful death BEFORE I die.” Rural Reader
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