St. Boniface Hospital will unveil a dedicated unit for patients with heart-related issues this summer.

Patients with cardiovascular issues will be pulled out of the waiting room and transferred into the new unit starting in early July. They can be monitored there and receive testing, said Dr. Anita Soni, who leads cardiac sciences at the hospital.

“Not everyone should come through this emergency room,” she said at a news conference at St. Boniface Hospital on Friday, adding she hopes it becomes a “rapid turnover” unit where many patients can be sent home quickly.

Staff members “knew we had to help out, and so we were able to honestly just do extra shifts. All the cardiologists are going to be working a little harder and if we need to, we will create new cardiologist” positions, Soni said.

The opening date for the new space, called a cardiac assessment unit, was unveiled while the province was trumpeting the $22.1 million it announced in the budget to re-establish the cardiac centre of excellence, now called Heart Care Manitoba.

The additional funding is also going toward an extra cardiologist in the emergency department every morning. Soni said the help is needed because cardiologists are busy balancing patient discharges, those already on the wards and new arrivals, particularly in the mornings.

This is meant “to help any backlog from overnight and keep the flow going and get patients seen faster and admitted or discharged home faster,” she said.

Soni said cardiologists have voluntarily picked up 80 per cent of these extra morning shifts before the new program officially launches in July.

Other cardiac care improvements funded by the province include expanding operating days in the cardiac catheterization lab — known as the cath lab, which uses diagnostic imaging to examine the arteries and chambers of the heart — and the electrophysiology lab, which inspects heart rhythm disorders.

The hospital will add 19 in-patient beds for cardiac care and a centralized access office.

The union representing some of the health-care workers involved in cardiac care is questioning whether the province can deliver.

Respiratory therapist vacancies

One in three respiratory therapist positions at St. Boniface is currently vacant, “and shifts are frequently critically understaffed, day and night,” Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Jason Linklater said in a statement.

He also said the government hasn’t added the five perfusionists it promised in the 2023 election campaign, when the NDP pledged to restore cardiac care capacity at St. Boniface Hospital if elected.

In 2017, the Canadian Institute for Health Information cited St. Boniface as one of the best places to go in Canada for cardiac surgery.

That reputation was greatly diminished during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NDP argued the cardiac unit had trouble recruiting perfusionists and other staff, and that the PC government didn’t help.

In addition to the new cardiac assessment unit, the province’s budget also includes funding to create two other dedicated units where patients currently in waiting rooms will be seen by specialists. The province is planning mental health zones at Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface. No timelines have been announced.