Manitoba’s health workforce is heading “in a positive direction,” the province’s health minister said Monday after announcing plans to open 50 additional hospital beds at Health Sciences Centre.
“We’re trending in a better direction,” Uzoma Asagwara told reporters at HSC alongside Premier Wab Kinew.
No specific staffing figures were provided in answer to how many health-care workers have been hired to work in Manitoba during the NDP government’s first six months in office.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, along with Premier Wab Kinew, announced plans to open 50 additional hospital beds at the Health Sciences Centre Monday.
The beds are included in this year’s provincial budget, part of a more than $65-million pledge to cut ER wait times.
Those 50 beds will all be up and running this year, the premier promised; 27 of them are on medical wards and are already staffed and operational. Eight more are promised, along with five surgical beds and 10 psychiatric-unit beds.
Nine of the 10 psychiatric beds are in use now.
The number of new hires needed to support the beds isn’t clear. HSC chief medical officer Dr. Manon Pelletier said staffing ratios vary depending on the type of bed and the care teams in place.
She suggested in some cases, existing staff could be moved to new surgical beds, and said staff ratios need to be “ironed out.”
“That’s work that needs to continue to happen, so we can’t give you an exact number,” Pelletier said.
The premier and the health minister both acknowledged improving care is about the staff, not just about adding beds.
“We know we need to add beds, which means adding staffing. This is not just something like flicking the light switch and then it happens overnight,” Kinew said.
“This is something that takes careful planning.”
The premier said he was speaking from a place of humility and acknowledged Manitoba needs to increase hospital capacity more than what he’s promised.
HSC alone probably needs 60 new beds, along with additional expansions at other hospitals across the province, he said.
“The minister of health very graciously said we’re encouraging new grads to stay in the province. Some would say ‘beg.’ My message to nursing grads and others is: Please! Stay in Manitoba,” Kinew said, taking a pleading tone that prompted a few laughs at Monday’s news conference.
“We’re not here talking about ‘mission accomplished.’ We’re here talking about first steps and next steps.”
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
From left: Dr. Manon Pelletier, Premier Wab Kinew, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara and Dr. Shawn Young at the press conference at the Health Sciences Centre announcing the opening of new hospital beds.
The government faced more questions about staffing targets at the legislature Monday. PC health critic Kathleen Cook (Roblin) asked how many of the promised 1,000 additional health-care workers are net-new positions.
The health minister didn’t provide numbers of new hires compared to departed staff, but hit back at the Opposition for “disrespecting” health-care workers while in office.
The government previously said an additional 1,000 doctors, nurses, paramedics and health aides would be working in the province by this time next year.
Asagwara said health workers are reporting a decline in job vacancy rates.
“It’s a good day for health care in Manitoba when what we’re hearing from front-line health-care workers is they’re continuing to feel hopeful,” the minister said.
The commitment to add 50 beds at HSC comes after the government announced it would staff 36 more beds at St. Boniface Hospital and 31 beds at Grace Hospital.
Last week’s rollout of the provincial budget included a large focus on increasing hospital capacity in order to reduce ER wait times, and the government has also promised to permanently increase intensive-care capacity in Manitoba. Four new beds are being added to HSC’s pediatric ICU for a new baseline of 13 beds, said Dr. Shawn Young, HSC’s chief operating officer.
“We’ve not been at nine kids in our ICU for probably two years now. It’s been well over 100 per cent capacity,” Young said.
katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
