Manitoba hires hundreds of health-care workers, on track to meet target: Kinew

Staff vacancy levels in Manitoba's health-care system are starting to stabilize, Premier Wab Kinew says, as the province fills hundreds of positions, bringing Manitoba closer toward its goal of hiring1,000 health-care workers.

Last spring, the NDP government pledged $310 million from its budget toward its goal of hiring1,000 health-care workers after subtracting the number of staff who've left.

Halfway through the year, the province said it had staffed 873 net new positions, which includes 304 nurses, 290 health-care aides and 116 physicians to Manitoba's public health-care system.

"While we haven't hit our goal of completely fixing health care, the early steps that we're taking are showing results," Kinew said at a news conference Thursday.

"We're keeping our word to you but there's still a lot more work to be done."

The province had initially set its target to fill 1,000 positions with 100 doctors, 210 nurses, 90 paramedics and 600 care aides.

But the province is now countingpositions across other health-care disciplinesthat were notpart of the initial target, including hiringseven midwives, 61 physicianresidents and 80 allied health workers in diagnostic positions.

"Any increase in those numbers is is worth counting ...the issue isthat we're going to need many more," Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservatives' health critic, said in an interviewThursday.

"You've got Manitobans who still can't access a family doctor, wait times for surgeries and diagnostic tests are still too high, and we've got rural ER closures happening all over the province," she said.

"There's a lot more work to do."

Hiring efforts across the board: province

Minister of Health Uzoma Asagwara said the province left "no stone unturned" to hire new health-care workers, including setting up a recruitment and retention office to bring internationally-educated workers into the province.

Asagwara added Manitoba has contacted over 250 health-care workers out of the province, including campaigning in the U.K. to attract physicians.

Asagwara said the province has also taken steps to bring recently retired nurses back to the workforce, which has resulted in 60 of them rejoining the health-care system since January.

"We saw that the health-care workforce numbers were dwindling we saw a toxic culture under the previous government that resulted in mass resignations, early retirements, and quite frankly, paltry recruitment and retention numbers," Asagwara said.

"We committed to turning that tide."

Kinewgave the province's health minister a lot of the credit for the new hires.

"Under Heather Stefanson, people would graduate and leave the province," he said. "Under Minister Asagwara, somebody who graduates gets an offer letter put in their hand to work right here in Manitoba."

But Cook said Thursday's net hiring numbers are due to "many recruitment and retention initiatives" put forward by the previous government.

Cook said it is "disingenuous" for the NDP government to take "full credit" when the previous government added more seats at the University of Manitoba's medical school and oversaw the creation of a nurse pool.

"These are seeds that are planted that don't bear fruit immediately, they take time, and today's announcement is a result of that forethought and that planning," she said.

'A slap in the face':operating room attendant

Jason Linklater,president of theManitoba Association of Healthcare Professionals, told CBC News the union isn'tseeing an increase inthe number ofallied health professionals they were hoping for.

"Wecan see that only sevennew paramedics out of 90 they committed to hire ... that is not enough to get an ambulance there faster when Manitobans need it," he said.

Vacancies in urban centresare not being posted as positions remain unfilled, Linklatersaid, adding while it might be in an effort todrive applicants to more remote and northern communities, the demand for jobs also exists in cities.

"It is a chronic problem that we've seen with paramedics in lab and diagnostic imaging, and it's something that we want to see change," he said.

Meanwhile, Tracy Drexler, an operating room attendant,said the province's announcement came as "a slap in the face" in the backdrop of a potential strike that could see 25,000 support workers hit the picket lines beginning Oct. 8.

"Youtold us you were going to fix health care [but]you can't fix health care if you don't have staff and you're not going to be able to retain the staff if you're not going to pay us a fair wage," Drexler said.

CUPE, one of the two unions representing support workers preparing to strike, said recruitment and retention of their positionsshould be a priority for government. The union saidnow is the time for tangible improvements.

"The staffing crisis in health care, we are at a breaking point more so than even during COVID,"Shannon McAteerhealth-care coordinator forCUPEManitoba told CBC News.

"If the desired outcome from the government was to try and calm the waters, I believe it's had the opposite effect."

No relief yet: Nurses Union

A spokesperson for the Manitoba Nurses Union saidin a statement the net hiring of 340 new nurses is significant, but members on the front lines have "yet to report any noticeable relief," such asa drastic reduction in mandatory overtime and "wasteful" agency spending.

Doctors Manitoba said a net increase in the number of physicians hired is a step in the right direction towardaddressing staff shortages.

A spokesperson for the union added the number of physicians currently working might shrink once the licences of existing doctors expire later in the fall with some opting out.

But Kinew is confident the province is going to reach its hiring target in the coming months, andsaid increasing staff numbersis only a first step.

"It is going to take us many years of sustaining this kind of effort for us to deliver the improvements to health care that we want to see for patients right across this great province," he said.

Manitoba on track to boost health-care workforce by 1,000

5 days ago

Duration 2:12

Manitoba's NDP government is celebrating the addition of 873 new health-care staff, putting it well on its way to hire 1,000 net new workers, albeit across a wider range of positions than its initial promise in the spring.