Dave Baxter
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Winnipeg Sun
Health care and working conditions for health care workers have not improved under the NDP government and may be getting worse, despite election promises to fix the health care system, a report released by the Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU) this week said.
“For some time now, we’ve heard about the promises to fix health care,” MNU said in a press release on Thursday, announcing the release of a new report titled, Health care in Manitoba is in CRISIS.
The union, which represents more than 13,000 Manitoba nurses, says the comprehensive study “lays bare the true state of Manitoba’s health-care system and what needs to change,” and says those changes are needed “now.”
“It’s rich in data that has been collected and monitored for some time,” the union said.
MNU is calling the data troubling and said the current NDP government has not been making good on promises made during the 2023 provincial election campaign, when then-candidate for premier Wab Kinew made several promises to deal with the health-care challenges that have persisted in Manitoba for years.
“In fact, we’ve heard help has arrived, but the reality is, things have only gotten worse,” MNU said. “The research reveals that wait times are on the rise, vacancies are climbing, and violence is rampant throughout the province.”
According to the report, health care and urgent care wait times have been on the rise for years and that trend shows no sign of slowing down, as the report states that “over the last five years, the time it takes for patients to see a doctor or nurse practitioner in Winnipeg emergency and urgent care facilities has nearly tripled.”
The report also shows that the amount of people leaving health care facilities without being seen or treated is on the rise, as it says that by 2023-24, 15.4% of ED and UC patients left without being seen, representing one of every seven patients.
That number has risen from 5.4%, or one of every 20 patients leaving without being seen in 2020-21, MNU said.
The report says four of Manitoba largest hospital’s rank among the eight worst performers in Canada for “quality of care and mortality rates,” while Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (HSC) is currently ranked dead last in the country for care and mortality rates, while Winnipeg’s Grace and St. Boniface hospitals, and the Brandon General Hospital also rank among the eight worst in Canada.
“These statistics point to deep systemic issues that are compromising patient care and safety across Manitoba’s public health care system,” the study says.
The report also relates poor scores for care at hospitals in Manitoba with the amount of nursing vacancies currently in the province, as it shows a 21% vacancy rate for provincial nurses in the summer of 2024, up from 15% in the summer of 2020.
“A significant body of research establishes a clear connection between nurse staffing levels and patient experience and outcomes,” the report says.
And nurses in Manitoba are feeling increasingly concerned about their own safety and the safety of patients, as the report said nurses are facing an “escalating crisis of workplace violence” and police are receiving an increasing number of calls from health care facilities across the province about both verbal and physical abuse.
The report said that the HSC campus currently has the second highest rate of violent crime in Winnipeg.
Calls to police from hospitals are also going up in rural hospitals, with RCMP responding to 557 calls from the Thompson General Hospital in 2024, while it also says there has been an “alarming surge” at other rural facilities including the hospital in Swan Valley.
The report puts much of the blame for the continuing issues on what it says is “government inaction.”
“The current government initiated listening tours to obtain feedback from frontline staff,” the report said. “The premier also appointed a newly elected MLA as a direct conduit to the premier’s office on nursing issues.
“Unfortunately, MNU’s members survey indicates that these strategies have been largely ineffective. Sixty-five percent of nurse respondents reported that there has been no improvement or that conditions have worsened.”
On Thursday, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara responded to the report telling reporters the changes asked for by MNU and others are “going to take time,” while placing some of the blame on the province’s previous PC government, who have been out of power since the fall of 2023.
“We know that the changes that Manitobans want to see and that nurses want to see, the big changes, are going to take time,” Asagwara said. “Our government has made some real progress, but again I recognize that some of the big changes take time, but we’re going to get there.”
— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
