No end in sight for Manitoba’s health-care crisis, says union prez

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A new report warns that rural Manitoba is in a “health care staffing crisis” that will continue until aggressive action is taken to hire and retain more workers.

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On Thursday, the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union (MGEU) released From Crisis to Stability a report that includes statistics showing the current state of health-care staffing in rural Manitoba communities, and gives several recommendations.

At a media conference on Thursday in Winnipeg, MGEU President Kyle Ross called on the NDP government to take steps the union says are needed, or he said the current “crisis” will continue and likely get worse, and health-care employees will continue to work in increasingly difficult and stressful situations.

“This government made an election commitment to fix health care. To keep their promise, the government must invest in the entire health-care team,” Ross said.

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“Health care is, at its heart, about people taking care of people, and no matter how advanced medications and medical equipment gets, you can’t have health care without health-care workers.”

MGEU currently represents employees in several health-care support and technical roles across rural Manitoba, both at health-care facilities and personal care homes.

According to the report, health-care aide vacancy rates are over 30% throughout the Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) region, and 15 facilities in the region currently have vacancy rates of more than 40%.

The report also shows that in PMH and the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA) combined there are currently more than 700 vacancies just in Health Care Aide and Home Care Program roles.

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The current staffing situation is also proving to be a costly one, according to MGEU, as the union says spending on private agency staffing spiked from $8.3 million in 2021-22, to nearly $30 million in 2023-24, with about half of those expenditures going towards travel costs.

“Spiking vacancy rates have left our public health-care system over-reliant on costly agency staffing, compromising patient care,” Ross said. “It’s time to end this wasteful and inefficient practice and invest the savings in the hiring of more health-care providers in the public system.”

The union believes current vacancy rates will continue until health-care workers are offered “attractive” salary and benefits packages, as health-care employers continue to compete with the retail and service industries in small and medium-sized communities for employees in Manitoba.

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And MGEU said that as the population in rural Manitoba communities continues to age, and staffing remains “stagnant,” they expect increased strain on the health-care system and its staff in the coming years.

“Manitoba’s rapidly growing cohort of seniors are requiring more and more health services, requiring more staffing resources,” the report states.

“Staffing levels in facility support and technical professional classifications have stagnated, while patient needs grow.”

The report includes 10 recommendations that MGEU says must be acted upon by the province, including the implementation of an “aggressive” recruitment and retention strategy, providing more training opportunities in more rural communities, expanding the number of full-time positions, and putting an end to what the union says are “unnecessary” system-wide restructuring exercises.

The union is also calling on the province to immediately “phase out” private-for-profit agency staffing and to reallocate funds to enhance current wages for “difficult to recruit” positions.

The Winnipeg Sun has reached out to the province for comment.

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