New critical care centre to be ready for patients next month

The critical care centre at Brandon’s hospital will begin accepting patients in May with the opening of expanded intensive care and inpatient medicine services, the Manitoba government announced Wednesday.

The number of beds in the new Intensive Care Unit will increase from 10 to 16, with 12 beds opening to start, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said during a news conference at the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

The 30-bed Internal Medicine Unit on the second floor will open 15 beds in the spring, with the remaining beds coming online as more staff are hired, they said.

“We know that the most responsible way to add capacity is to make sure that you’re doing it in a way where those beds are fully staffed … so that we’re not adding capacity and enforcing a scenario where you’re using overtime or mandating to staff those beds,” Asagwara said.

Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said she hopes the four remaining ICU beds will open this year, but that will depend on training and the number of nurses interested in working there.

Slate said she didn’t have a timeline on when the remaining 15 beds in the Internal Medicine Unit will open.

The province spent approximately $120 million on the building, which started construction in the fall of 2022.

The Brandon Regional Health Centre has the only ICU between Winnipeg and Regina and it’s one of four ICUs in Manitoba, Slate said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role this site plays in caring for patients across the region and beyond, and reinforced the need for expanded modern infrastructure,” she said.

“This new facility will transform how care is delivered.”

Slate added that the existing ICU is “very crowded” and only has three private rooms.

Dr. Adrian Fung, chief medical officer of Prairie Mountain Health, said the critical care centre is a “large step forward” and will make a huge difference for patients, their families and staff who are providing care.

Patients will receive care in spacious, single rooms that feature a ceiling track lift, said Sheilagh Remillard, who’s the ICU manager at the hospital.

The ICU also has a quiet room for families — something the existing unit doesn’t have, she said.

The third floor is a mechanical space, and the fourth level is a shell space for a neonatal intensive care unit, enabling the future development of specialized neonatal services, Remillard said.

The centre also has an outdoor courtyard for families and patients to help reduce stress and promote healing.

Slate said the regional health authority is addressing its existing vacancy rates and working to recruit more nurses at the centre by offering paid opportunities for health-care staff to observe activities in the ICU.

“We have some areas of our region which are harder for recruitment and retention, especially in the north part of our region where we really struggle, and we have very high vacancy rates,” she said.

Last year, the province ordered Prairie Mountain Health to cut its spending on private agency nurses by 15 per cent before March 2026. Slate said the regional health authority has achieved that target.

Prairie Mountain Health spent $8.1 million on private nursing agencies in 2020-21, and that amount jumped to $35 million in 2024-25.

Asagwara said Prairie Mountain Health is the hardest region in Manitoba to staff and that more nurses are needed.

“They’ve risen to the occasion in terms of prioritizing staffing the front lines, bringing those agency dollars down and then making sure that money — every single dollar — should be going to the bedside,” Asagwara said.

Asagwara said the hospital expansion will allow more people in western Manitoba to receive life-saving care closer to home and reduce the number of patient transfers to other hospitals.

Brandon Firefighter Paramedics Local 803 president Gage Wood said having an increased ICU-bed capacity is a “great addition” to the city because it will decrease the number of local ambulances transporting patients to Winnipeg.

Brandon Fire and Emergency Services operate three ambulances that respond to calls in the city and surrounding areas, with two additional ambulances dedicated to inter-facility transfers, Wood said.

More than two inter-facility transfers to Winnipeg per day tie up ambulances for at least six hours, requiring rural ambulances in Westman to provide coverage for Brandon, he said.

While the hospital expansion will bring a surge of rural patients needing life-saving care to the city, Wood said he’s concerned local ambulances will be tied up with more patient transports to and from the Brandon airport.

“If stretcher-car service isn’t working, the ambulances of Brandon are going to be the ones going to the airport the majority of the time to bring these patients in that are flying, you know, from other communities,” he said.

Although airport transfers only tie up ambulances for up to an hour, Wood said he’s worried BFES doesn’t have the capacity for it and he would like the province to invest in more stretcher-service units to transport patients.

“A lot of times, patients simply need a mode of transport from one hospital to another with very little medical intervention. So, having more of those crews would definitely free up the paramedics for … calls that actually need medical intervention on the way to Winnipeg,” Wood said.

Asagwara didn’t comment on whether the province would provide more funding for patient transport services in Brandon.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com