Five out of 16 people whose deaths were ruled critical incidents between April and September of last year in Manitoba experienced delays before they died, the province says in its latest patient safety reports.

The deaths are among 59 total incidents described in disclosures for the second and third quarter of 2025 recently posted online by the province.

Two patients who died experienced delays related to accessing care, according to the brief descriptions in the reports. Opportunities to transfer one of them in a timely way to a higher level of care were “not fully realized,” the report said.

Three patients who died faced delays in treatment and responses to their medical condition.

Including data from the first quarter of last year, a total of 24 deaths were ruled critical incidents between Jan. 1 and Sep. 30, six of which the reports said involved delays.

The latest quarterly reports were released as median wait times at Winnipeg’s emergency departments remain the longest they’ve been since at least the spring of 2019.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s monthly wait-time reports show the median wait at city hospitals was over four hours, with one in 10 patients having to wait longer than 11 hours and 30 minutes to get care.

The median wait times for February were longer than for all annual peaks going back to the 2019/20 fiscal year, according to a WRHA chart. They’re nearly double what they were during the peak month in 2019/20, when Winnipeggers had to wait for about two hours and 10 minutes to be seen.

Patients were waiting about 14 minutes longer for care in February than during the same month last year, the data shows.

Jennifer Zelmer, CEO of non-profit Healthcare Excellence Canada, said pressures in emergency rooms indicate issues elsewhere in the system, like lack of access to primary, home and long-term care.

Zelmer said officials and health-care providers should be asking themselves how to reduce risks for patients on the front lines, but also more broadly within the system.

“Do we have sufficient staffing resources?” she said. “Do we have sufficient systems that allow us to identify [problems] early and also to support healing after harm?”

The remaining deaths described in the province’s new patient safety reports involve several incidents where health-care staff missed out on opportunities to recognize or treat patients’ medical conditions early.

Zelmer said overcrowding impacts quality of care.

“The earlier you identify that something may not be going right, the easier it is to address it,” she said. “That can be more difficult when you’re … in a situation of stress, when there’s a lot going on.”