September 19, 2008

SPECIALIZED NURSES TO ENHANCE MENTAL-HEALTH CARE IN MANITOBA EMERGENCY ROOMS: MINISTERS
Registered psychiatric nurses will be hired to work in five additional emergency departments across Manitoba with a provincial investment of $688,000, Health Minister Theresa Oswald and Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross announced today.

“Staff in emergency departments frequently see patients who need emergency mental-health care as much as they need physical care,” said Oswald. “This investment will help us put the right professionals in the right spot at the front lines of our medical system.”

Eight general hospitals in Manitoba currently have registered psychiatric nurses in emergency departments. Funding will be provided to place registered psychiatric nurses in five additional emergency departments across the province including:
· Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach,
· Selkirk and District General Hospital,
· Flin Flon General Hospital,
· Victoria General Hospital in Winnipeg, and
· Seven Oaks General Hospital in Winnipeg.

“People who have serious mental-health challenges often seek care in an emergency department,” said Irvin-Ross. “The addition of psychiatric nurses to the team will provide more understanding care to patients as well as improved access to mental-health resources and co-ordination of services.”

“Having a registered psychiatric nurse in the emergency room at Bethesda Hospital will allow us to provide compassionate mental-health care services to patients in crisis,” said Monique Vielfaure Mackenzie, chief executive officer of South Eastman Health/Santé Sud-Est Inc. “We are excited for this opportunity to enhance and expand the emergency services we provide in our region.”

In 2004, the Emergency Care Task Force reviewed emergency health-care services in Winnipeg and developed a series of recommendations and plans for implementing service improvements. Today’s investment addresses and expands on one of the task force’s recommendations, providing additional resources both in Winnipeg and in rural Manitoba.

The ministers noted the province is moving forward on plans to develop a mental-health emergency department which will be the first facility of its kind in Canada. A redeveloped, state-of-the-art Selkirk Mental Health Centre is set to open later this fall.

Since 1999, Manitoba has made significant investments in emergency health care including:
· investing more than $135 million for the redevelopment of Health Sciences Centre, the largest redevelopment of a health facility in Manitoba’s history;
· investing more than $13 million to construct a new oncology department and expand the emergency department at Victoria General Hospital;
· investing more than $4.5 million to renovate and expand the emergency department at Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach;
· committing more than $5 million to expand the emergency room at the Portage District General Hospital ; and
· investing $1.7 million to more than double the number of training seats in emergency medicine to 13 seats from five at the University of Manitoba.

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