Manitoba adding 50 beds to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, plus more pediatric ICU beds [Video]

For more on the story:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-health-sciences-winnipeg-1.7167027

Another 50 beds are opening at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre to help reduce wait times, and four more pediatric intensive care unit beds will also be funded, the provincial government said at a news conference Monday.

There will be 35 medicine beds, 10 psychiatric beds and five surgical beds added to Manitoba’s biggest hospital, the provincial government said in a news release — and 27 medicine beds and nine psychiatric beds are already open, officials said at a news conference held at HSC.

In addition, the nine-bed pediatric ICU is getting increased funding so that it can have four more permanent beds and an additional four pediatric beds at the level below intensive care, Dr. Shawn Young, chief operating officer for HSC, said at the news conference.

“We’ve not been at nine kids in our ICU for probably two years now. It’s been well over 100 per cent capacity,” he said.

It was a surprise addition to the announcement of the 50 beds, one Premier Wab Kinew said they’d planned to announce separately.

“Surprise,” Kinew said.