Our emergency departments have been closed. We've lost two and we're going to lose a third one, which is going to mean our city has three access points for emergency.
One issue we've identified is that the Health Sciences Centre is in the core of the city. Many residents who live in that core area do not have access to a taxi or a bus to get to an urgent care facility or a walk-in clinic.
Despite the fact that our government and our regional health authority in Winnipeg says, “The right care at the right time in the right place”, the bottom line is that many of our individuals who live in those areas don't have access to the right care. They have no way to get there. They go to the closest facility, which is our Health Sciences Centre, because they have no choice. There's nowhere else for them to go. To take a cab to Victoria General Hospital is absolutely out of their range of income.
Saying that you need to be at the right place at the right time for the right care is a platitude. It doesn't work for the communities in that area. I think part of the issue is that many of our patients who present with a meth-related issue are volatile. Things can change. On the spin of a quarter, their whole demeanour changes. Often they need a lot of resources to ensure they're safe and to ensure care providers and other patients are safe, which means that the wait for other patients in our emergency departments is longer.