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In a choked voice, he added, "I don‘t think there should be any reason why she should not be accepted {into intensive care at St. Mary‘s Hospital). To me, it‘s playing politics with people‘s lives and I just can‘t get past that. "She was a Catholic, she was a taxpayer, and she was Jennifer Berry, a spokesperson for St. Mary‘s Hospital, said Mrs. LeBlanc had been stabilized before being sent to St. Mary‘s could not accept LeBlanc because "our intensive care unit was full. We‘d had four very acute cases come in that day. "We did not have enough staff in order to admit anymore patients," said Berry. There were beds available, if there had been sufficient nurses. The hospital‘s budget calls for five nurses per shift to be assigned to the intensive care unit, explained Berry. Yet, for much of January, there have been eight nurses working in the unit to deal with the numbers of patients and the seriousness of their conditions. The effect has been a depletion of nursing reserves. "Normally, we‘would have enough reserves to call in," and double shifts." 6 The bospital had tried to call in extra nurses Saturday but without success, she said. St. Mary‘s is in the process of hiring two more nurses for the ICU, said Berry. The hospital has a policy to not transfer patients out of emergency unless they are sufficiently stable, she said. As well, there is an agreement between St. Mary‘s, Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo and Cambridge Memorial hospitals that enables patients to be transferred to critical care facilities â€" such as the intensive care unit and the There appears to be nothing amiss in the manner in which St. Mary‘s Hospital dealt with a woman who died after being turned away because of insufficient staffing in the hospital‘s intensive care unit, accordâ€" ing to a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health. "At this time, from the information we‘ve received, the ministry believes they acted in a responsible way to get necessary care," said Amorell Saunders, a The shortage of intensive care nursing staff was a temporary problem", said Saunders. "We believe the hospital acted responsibly in roviding care." ‘ Saunders said the ministry is aware of the critical METRO Nothing went wrong at St. Mary‘s: province * (Continged from page 1) Free Caesar‘s Salad and Garlic Bread Offer f/fi’ coronary care unit â€"â€" at a hospital with space available. "We rarely use Gueiph. Generally, we can use Kitchen erâ€"Waterioo hospital." Berry said it was her understanding that LeBlanc "got into trouble a couple of minutes before her arrival at the Gueiph hospital." _ Wendy Youens, the executive director of Gueiph General Hospital said, "My understanding is she died in bospital. She arrested in the hospital." Wayne Morriss, the president of Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo cial ministry of health need to work on the problem of the critical shortage of nurses in critical care units. "If it was my relative, your relative, or whoever, it‘s always distressing when someone has to be transferred occurrences "unusual", but said, "Every hospital in the province is overloaded because of the influx of patients and they have to make a decision at the time what they want to do." Morriss is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health, putting him in what he agreed was a "sticky situation" in Annie Coteâ€"Kennedy, a spokesperson for Kitchenerâ€"Waâ€" It was employees of Morriss‘ company who transported LeBlanc to St. Mary‘s and Guelph. Morriss called such terloo Hospital, said their ICU was closed to further admissions Sunday morning because of the "seriousness of the types of patients we had" and a nurse calling in sick." There were patients in eight of the ICU‘s 13 beds, she said, but only six nurses available instead of the usual complement of seven. A doctor determines whether the ICU can remain open. shortage of critical care nurses in Ontario. "It‘s going to take a while to solve it," she said. Health Minister Elinor Caplan is meeting with the chief executives of hospitals as well as the Ontario Nurses Association in an attempt to address the problem, said Saunders. The minister hopes to address issues other than mhflu&emd-â€".dh-fi.h Asked if the minister considers that some patients necessary by some physicians, Saunders replied, "The ministry relies in great measure on medical jadgement of surgeons and physicians to decide what en d i k e is a necessary level of care for their patients." a Caesar‘s Salad and an order of Gartic Bread E when you order any special listed below. TAVERN 164 VICTORIA N. KITCHENER 743â€"2720 WATERLOO TOWN SQUARE., WATERLOO Open Thur. & Fri. Nights sa6â€" HATASHITA £, WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 1, 1989 â€" PAGE 5 10 pt. total wt. 20 pt. total wi. 50 pt. total wi. T0 pL totai wt 886â€"2810 1399 +199