Province nears goal of 1,000 new health-care hires Recruitment a good start but busy front-line workers haven’t noticed any change, unions say By: Chris Kitching Posted: 1:23 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 26, 2024 Last Modified: 6:27 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 26, 2024 Updates

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The Manitoba government is closing in on its “ambitious” goal of hiring 1,000 net new health-care workers this fiscal year to ease chronic staff shortages, Premier Wab Kinew announced Thursday.

Kinew said the province has added 873 public employees since the budget was unveiled in April, making him optimistic the target will be reached before the end of March.

“I want to be clear, we’re not putting up the mission accomplished banner just yet,” he said during a news conference at Grace Hospital.

“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.”

The budget set targets of 100 doctors, 210 nurses, 90 paramedics and 600 health-care aides.

The government said the hirings so far include 116 doctors, 304 nurses, seven paramedics and 290 health-care aides. The balance includes 80 allied health staff who work in diagnostics and other positions, 61 residents, eight physician or clinical assistants, and seven midwives.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara expects the net figures to change, depending on the number of employees who do not renew their professional licences this fall.

“We’re going to keep doing this work, so that we can mitigate some of the loss that we see during those windows, and encourage people to join during those windows as well,” Asagwara said.

The minister said new graduates are immediately offered a job, and 60 recently retired nurses returned to practice after the province changed requirements.

The government said “hundreds” of nurses were recruited from outside Manitoba, while a campaign is underway to lure doctors from the U.K.

Asagwara said a new recruitment and retention office is assisting more than 250 internationally educated workers who are interested in coming to Manitoba.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook said the NDP is taking credit for hirings that resulted from the former Tory government’s initiatives.

She cited expanded training classes and the creation of a provincial nurse float pool as examples.

“It is going to take us many years of sustaining this kind of effort for us to deliver the improvements to health care…”–Premier Wab Kinew

“A lot of these initiatives are like seeds that were planted by the previous (PC) government,” she said. “We’re seeing the benefits and fruits of that planning in (this) announcement.”

Some of the success of the 116 physician hirings can be attributed to a services agreement signed by the Tories and Doctors Manitoba in 2023, said Cook.

Kinew gave credit to Asagwara and their work with health officials and front-line workers for the staffing increase.

The NDP budgeted almost $310 million in 2024-25 to retain, recruit and train more health-care staff. Measures include more training seats and an expanded nurse float pool, which has 179 signees.

Asagwara accused the former Tory government of creating a toxic culture that led to “mass” resignations, early retirements and “paltry” recruitment and retention figures.

The NDP has vowed to improve culture within health care and make changes based on feedback to help retain existing staff.

Thursday’s announcement brought mixed reactions from labour organizations, who said more work is needed to retain staff and improve working conditions.

Recent surveys by unions or associations showed high numbers of staff are considering leaving their profession, retiring early or moving out of province. Multiple groups said vacancy rates remain high.

The province held the news conference a day after 25,000 health-care support workers gave strike notice. The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204 and Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said their members will strike Oct. 8 if a deal isn’t reached.

“Our workers aren’t seeing these (hiring) numbers and these improvements,” said MGEU president Kyle Ross. “They’re still struggling every day.”

“Our workers aren’t seeing these (hiring) numbers and these improvements… They’re still struggling every day.”–Kyle Ross, Manitoba Government Employees’ Union president

He said the hiring plan is a step in the right direction, but support staff continue to work overtime or double shifts, and “barely” get by.

Shannon McAteer, CUPE’s health-care co-ordinator in Manitoba, questioned whether the government’s count of 290 aides is mostly workers who have not yet become certified.

“They’re not fully functioning health-care aides yet,” she said. “We haven’t seen any benefits from these numbers that were shared.”

McAteer said there is no sign that pressure is easing on support staff who are short-staffed and burnt out.

Members of the Manitoba Association of Allied Health Care Professionals are also without a contract. President Jason Linklater said a new contract will play a major role in retention and recruitment efforts.

He said 1,000 allied health positions are vacant.

“It’s really good we saw them announce the net gain vs. just new hires, which we saw with previous governments,” he said.

“It points to the number of new allied health professionals. It is lower than we hoped, but that’s a good part of this, is that honesty.”

Seven additional paramedics “is not nearly enough to get an ambulance there to Manitobans,” said Linklater.

If there are an additional 304 nurses, the Manitoba Nurses Union expects to begin learning about the impact of the new hires, and see a “drastic reduction” in mandatory overtime and “wasteful” spending on private agencies, said president Darlene Jackson.

“Any increase in the number of nurses is certainly a positive step for the province,” she said in a statement. “However, our members have yet to report any noticeable relief.”

Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Randy Guzman said the net increase is a step in the right direction toward addressing a shortage and getting patients better care.

With 215 physicians per capita, Manitoba needs 445 more doctors to reach the national average, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In June, a Doctors Manitoba report found the province was at risk of losing 688 physicians, or 21 per cent of the workforce, to relocation or retirement in the next three years.

“We hope to see the government and health system leaders build on this progress with more concrete steps to retain the physicians we have and recruit more too, by focusing on building a culture and work environment that supports physicians with delivering the exceptional care each and every Manitoban deserves,” Guzman said in a statement.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca