Kinew, Asagwara announce health-care ‘listening tour’ plans

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This article was published 27/11/2023 (651 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara are hitting the road for a health-care “listening tour.”

Kinew and Asagwara will travel to eight hospitals over the next several months to hear ideas, concerns and priorities directly from front-line health system workers.

“It’s so important that decisions that we make to strengthen health care in our province are directly informed by the folks who are providing that health care,” Asagwara said Monday.

The tour’s first stop is Dec. 8, at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg.

Asagwara encouraged nurses, doctors, health-care aides and others involved in direct patient care to come prepared to share their thoughts openly and honestly during an hour-long, in-person session.

An online option for health-care providers to give the premier and the health minister their feedback will also be launched, according to the government.

Other stops on the tour include: Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital and Victoria General Hospital (Winnipeg); Brandon Regional Health Centre; Bethesda Regional Health Centre (Steinbach); Selkirk Mental Health Centre; and Thompson General Hospital.

Additional locations and dates will be added.

Kinew said the tour is about rebuilding trust between the government and the front lines.

“We know that people on the front lines are feeling burn-out and stress and are feeling the challenge of that crisis that you see when you visit an emergency department or the challenges that you see in long-term care facilities or working in the community,” the premier said.

“We are there for you, to hear your ideas of how we can help you.”

Asagwara, Kinew, local MLAs and government staff will lead the conversations with health-care workers.

While managers and administrators will also have chances to share their opinions with the government, the listening tour is primarily intended for direct care providers, the health minister said.

“It is also important to recognize that everybody’s comfort level in terms of who is in the space may vary,” Asagwara said.

“What we want to make sure health-care workers know is that the days of feeling like you’re going to be punished, the days of worrying that there’s going to be some form of retribution because you’re expressing your concerns or ideas or raising your voice on a particular issue — those days are done.”

Asagwara emphasized the listening tour is the start of a longer-term exercise by the NDP government to engage workers.

“We want to make sure that folks know across the health-care system that you have a government that wants to work with you and walk alongside you in this journey of strengthening health care and fixing health care in Manitoba for the long term, not just the immediate,” the Union Station MLA said.

Information gathered during the hospital visits will be used to guide decision making, Kinew said.

“Not only are we going to listen to your good ideas but we are going to act upon them,” the NDP premier said.

“It is our intention to continue doing this exercise of checking in with you, the front lines of the health-care staff, over our time in office and along the way reporting back to you the progress that we’re making.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca