Brian Sinclair (1963 – September 21, 2008) was an Indigenous Canadian man whose death in a hospital waiting room led to widespread concern on the state of the healthcare system in Canada.
[3] At 3:00 p.m., Sinclair arrived via taxi to the emergency room at the Health Sciences Centre with a note from the clinic that explained his condition.
[4] Shortly afterward, a nurse from another facility approached a security guard and stated she thought that Sinclair was dead, as his neck was "pasty" and his catheter bag was empty.
[4][7] An autopsy later found that Sinclair had a treatable bladder infection brought on by a blocked catheter and had been deceased for two to seven hours before he had been noticed by medical staff.
[6][5] An inquest into Sinclair's death found that medical staff assumed that he was intoxicated, had already been discharged and had nowhere to go, had been triaged already, and was waiting for a bed in the back of the treatment area, or was homeless and seeking shelter from the cold weather.
[8] In 2014, a report which concluded that Sinclair's death had been preventable put forward 63 recommendations to overhaul the front end of Winnipeg's healthcare services, including how patients in emergency rooms are triaged and registered.