Manitoba doctors call on new health minister with recommendations

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This article was published 03/09/2021 (1800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA’S new health minister says she is taking doctors’ concerns seriously heading into the COVID-19 pandemic’s fourth wave.

A dozen local doctors sent a letter Wednesday night to Health Minister Audrey Gordon, putting forth five recommendations. They want Manitoba to legislate paid sick leave for those infected or quarantined, urgently evaluate and improve ventilation in school classrooms, make vaccines mandatory for first responders, increase contact tracing and testing, and consider supplying third-dose booster shots to the elderly, immunocompromised and to front-line health-care workers.

Gordon didn’t make specific promises Thursday, when asked about the counsel, but said she would take a “whole of government” approach to addressing the message.

“Very serious concerns were raised, and I want the physicians that penned the letter to know that we have common goals in mind, which is to protect Manitobans and to protect the 230,000 children under 12 that have not been vaccinated… I take very seriously what they have written in the letter and we’ll certainly be looking into each specific issue that they have raised,” the minister said.

Police and firefighters are municipal employees, and the City of Winnipeg has not implemented a vaccine mandate for its employees and no commitment to do so has been announced. Gordon said she met with Mayor Brian Bowman and they share the goal of encouraging vaccinations.

Many of the same doctors who co-signed the recent message have been writing letters of caution to the provincial government throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, they urged officials to prepare for the back-to-school season to keep unvaccinated children safe. The recommendations have largely gone unheeded, but the doctors wrote they’re glad to see the return of the mask mandate and expansion of vaccine requirements to enter businesses.

“Our emergency rooms, hospital wards and intensive care units are now filled to capacity despite the relatively low numbers of COVID cases over the summer. This is a consequence of over a year of burnout and resignations of health workers, nursing shortages, inadequate and inequitably distributed resources, and delays in medical investigations, surgery and other therapies,” the doctors warned in Wednesday’s letter.

On Thursday, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said officials are “acting prudently” considering where Manitoba’s case counts are now compared with other jurisdictions.

— with files from Maggie Macintosh

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay

Letter from 12 doctors to Minister of Health