Manitoba family pleads for province to end inter-regional patient transfers

A Winnipeg family cried as they asked that their father and husband be brought back to Winnipeg after health officials transferred the senior with dementia to a hospital hundreds of kilometres away.

"He's so heartbroken. I'm heartbroken. They just separated us," Florinda Apalit, Elias Apalit's wife, said at a news conference Monday where family members were joined by Transcona MLA Nello Altomare and NDP Leader Wab Kinew.

Elias Apalit, 76, was admitted to Concordia Hospital on Dec. 28 for dehydration and high blood pressure, and then injured himself in a fall while in the hospital.

Family members said on Jan. 26, they were given one day's notice that he would be transferred to the Minnedosa Health Centre, nearly 200 kilometres away.

"My dad is not well and my mom is worried that if his health was to decline further while in Minnedosa, that she would not be able to get there in time to see him," said Melissa Carter, Apalit's daughter.

Apalit has advanced dementia and doesn't understand what is happening and why, which is made worse by the fact that he has reverted to speaking his first language, Tagalog, despite being fluent in English for most of his life, she said.

"As my dad was being loaded into the ambulance for transfer, he was confused and was crying, and his departing words to my mom were, 'What did I do wrong? I want to go home. Please help me. Why am I being punished?'" Carter said.

Because of the transfer, the family couldn't help Apalit participate in a virtual funeral service for his brother.

"What's happening in our hospitals and in our medical system right now is wrong. Even in a pandemic, we should never have to put one person's care over another," Carter said.

The family had been trying to arrange for home care for Apalit when they were informed of the transfer. 

Due to the pressure placed on the system by the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals, which reached a new all-time high on Monday, the province says it is necessary to transfer patients between different health regions, sometimes to facilities far from patients' homes.

As of Monday morning, 257 patients had been moved as part of this protocol to sites in another health region, including four since Friday and 31 in the past week.

A spokesperson for Shared Health said transfers can be difficult for patients and families.

"However, these transfers are necessary in order to retain the health system's capacity to care for both COVID and non-COVID patients who require specialized care — including non-emergent surgeries — and similar policies have been implemented in other jurisdictions," the spokesperson said in an email statement.

At the news conference, Kinew called on the province to stop the patient transfers. 

"We need to have a government that invests in health care. Specifically, we need to invest in health-care staffing, so that Manitobans can count on getting the health care they need close to where they live," he said.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon said last week that the province is introducing a program to provide financial assistance for meals, transportation, accommodations and links to community support resources when people are relocated to facilities outside their regions.

Carter said her family is looking at all options, including finding accommodations in Minnedosa so they can be close to her father, but transferring patients far from their homes "is not patient-centred care."

"We need a health-care system that is strong enough to care for everyone," she said.