Health-care system critically ill, nurses’ union leader tells Gordon

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This article was published 14/10/2022 (1436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If she didn’t already know how bad things are, Health Minister Audrey Gordon sat down Thursday with the president of the Manitoba Nurses Union and was told the current state of affairs is “dire.”

The MNU issued a statement Friday saying Darlene Jackson met face-to-face with Gordon“for a frank discussion on the state of our health-care system, which we at MNU view as dire.”

“It was an all-encompassing meeting where we outlined numerous measures that we firmly believe will improve the system and its outcomes for both patients and staff, especially nurses. We now await action from Minister Gordon and her government,” it said.

Just two days before the meeting with Gordon, the union shared an SOS on social media from an anonymous member after a wave of resignations in Grace Hospital’s intensive-care unit left a ratio of one nurse for every three patients.

Thirteen nurses have left the hospital’s ICU since the beginning of the summer.

On Tuesday, Jackson made note of nursing shortages across the province and said the emergency room at the Health Sciences Centre is in “dire straits.”

“We are seeing nurses leave facilities, leave the province or leave the profession,” she said. “There are not enough nurses in the system to go around anymore.

“There is no fast remedy to get nurses into the system. They need to retain every nurse in the system to hold this system together until we have adequate numbers to provide the care.”

The province said 23 nurses are currently enrolled in the critical-care orientation program’s September intake, and 178 have graduated since last year.

A spokesman said the province is spending almost $20 million to add more than 250 nurse training seats at five post-secondary institutions this year as part of plans to add close to 400.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Chris Kitching