Province expanding, increasing measures to deal with health-care workers’ safety concerns in hospitals

The Manitoba government is increasing or expanding some hospital safety and security measures in response to health-care workers’ ongoing concerns about threats and physical attacks on the job.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara highlighted a raft of measures — some of which were previously announced — while nurses at a third Manitoba hospital decide whether to grey-list a facility for alleged unsafe working conditions.

“Violence has absolutely no place in health care — none whatsoever — especially against those who are providing care each and every day to Manitobans at the bedside,” Asagwara told reporters at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.

Dr. Chris Christodoulou, interim president and CEO of Shared Health, said a smartphone app, called SAFE, that launched at HSC in October was expanded to St. Boniface Hospital on Jan. 31 and Brandon Regional Health Centre on Feb. 2.

He said it will be used at Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg and Thompson’s hospital within a few weeks.

The app’s features include emergency notifications, a direct line to hospital security and safe ride or walk requests.

“Originally, we thought about 100, 105 ISOs would be enough. Very quickly, it became clear we would need more.”

Christodoulou said Shared Health is the first health-care organization in Canada to have a “very specific and customized deployment” of the app.

Asagwara said five institutional safety officers will begin at Thompson’s hospital in March, bringing the province’s total to 128.

November’s throne speech promised eight ISOs for the hospital, where a gunshot was fired in a chapel and a patient was stabbed in a span of nine months.

The province said HSC has 60 ISOs, St. Boniface and Victoria hospitals each have 18, Prairie Mountain Health region in western Manitoba has 20 and Selkirk Mental Health Centre has 12.

“Originally, we thought about 100, 105 ISOs would be enough. Very quickly, it became clear we would need more,” Asagwara said.

Amnesty lockers will be installed at hospitals in Thompson and Swan River for patients or visitors who are carrying weapons or items that could be considered weapons.

Shared Health said 1,887 items were detected by artificial-intelligence weapon scanners at three HSC campus entrances (the adult and children’s emergency rooms, and the crisis response centre) between March 6, 2025 and Feb. 12, 2026.

The items included knives and blunt objects, but not all were considered weapons. Asagwara said the figure includes items such as nail clippers and syringes that people use to self-administer medication.

Better monitoring of hospital entrances and expanded surveillance systems were among other upgrades announced Thursday.

Asagwara said the NDP government has made the “largest co-ordinated safety investment” in Manitoba’s health system, with more announcements to come.

Unions welcomed the measures and encouraged more efforts to help protect staff, patients and visitors.

“Hopefully, it creates a much safer work environment. I’m optimistic, but we’re going to have to wait and see.”

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said it’s not a coincidence the announcement came while St. Boniface Hospital nurses are voting on whether to grey-list the facility.

Some unions, including MNU, rebuked Asagwara’s claim that Manitoba is a leader in hospital safety and security.

“All the things this government has done are great and very positive. However, I have to point out that anything they’ve done has either come because of a grievance with an arbitration, where the arbitrator found the employer was not providing mitigated risk for employees or for patients… or grey-listing,” Jackson said.

In 2024, an arbitrator gave Shared Health 30 days to make a safety plan for HSC. Upgrades since then include the rollout of ISOs and a 24-7 police presence in HSC’s adult ER.

Jackson said a wheelchair was thrown at a St. Boniface Hospital nurse recently. A female employee was sexually assaulted in the hospital’s parkade in November.

Nurses grey-listed HSC in August while demanding a safer workplace, just weeks after a series of sexual assaults on or near the hospital’s grounds. Thompson’s hospital was grey-listed in November. The tactic discourages current and new nurses from seeking jobs at a grey-listed facility.

Jennifer Bamford, a health care co-ordinator with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, whose members include hospital security staff and health-care aides, was keen to see timelines for additional ISO hirings.

CUPE members in “all categories” of security often report working without a full complement, she said.

“Other health-care staff are relying on this category of worker to keep them safe, so we do want to see them fully staffed at all times,” Bamford said.

Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union president Kyle Ross said the measures are a good step, but filling jobs will be a challenge.

“Hopefully, it creates a much safer work environment. I’m optimistic, but we’re going to have to wait and see,” he said.

Some facilities in Prairie Mountain Health have vacant ISO positions, Ross said. MGEU represents allied health and support workers in some rural regions.

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Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents allied health workers, said unions forced the government and employers into action.

“The fact that some limited actions and investments are now taking place is not cause for congratulation or celebration when employers are still not following legislated safety requirements,” Linklater said in a statement.

Doctors Manitoba offered eight recommendations to Shared Health in August.

“While a significant step, we will continue to press for equally important community supports that require a culturally sensitive and trauma informed approach,” a Doctors Manitoba spokesperson said.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook backed the nurses who voted in favour of grey-listing.

“As health critic, I am pleased the scanners are doing their jobs,” Cook said. “But now I call on the health minister and premier to do theirs. Let’s put petty politics aside and work together to make hospitals safe for patients and staff.”

Asagwara accused the Tories of inaction when in government from 2016 to 2023.

— With files from Scott Billeck

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.