Possible grey list a black mark for HSC

Opinion

If you want to understand how bad things have gotten at Winnipeg’s largest hospital, consider this: the Manitoba Nurses Union is asking its members whether to “grey list” Health Sciences Centre because it has become a dangerous place to work.

Not just stressful, not just difficult — dangerous.

That’s a staggering indictment of the province’s flagship hospital. It handles some of the sickest patients and most complex cases, and serves as Manitoba’s central trauma centre.

It’s becoming known as a place where front-line staff members, particularly nurses, are being physically and sexually assaulted on the job.

That includes multiple recent incidents of sexual assault, the union says, and far too many cases where nurses are stalked, threatened or physically attacked. In the union’s view — which many front-line workers will tell you is absolutely accurate — Shared Health and hospital administrators have not done enough to stop it.

A grey list is a serious action — a formal declaration that a worksite is unsafe and that nurses should think twice about accepting a position there. The fact this is on the table should send alarm bells ringing from the minister of health’s office to the boardrooms of Shared Health.

Let’s be clear: the situation at HSC didn’t deteriorate overnight. This didn’t happen because of one or two incidents. It’s the product of years of systemic neglect — of chronic understaffing, a lack of adequate security, poor management accountability and an administration that has, for far too long, not given the safety concerns of front-line staff the attention it deserves.

When nurses are being sexually assaulted at work and the response from leadership is to downplay or dismiss those concerns, that’s not just a communications problem — that’s institutional failure.

Shared Health says it’s reviewing safety procedures and implementing new security measures. Ask any nurse at HSC, and they’ll tell you: these changes are too little, too late. They’re reactive bandages applied after years of warnings went ignored.

This is not only about needing more security guards or installing more cameras, although those things certainly help. It’s about a toxic workplace culture where nurses feel unsafe reporting threats and violence, where concerns are often swept under the rug, and where hospital leadership seems more focused on protecting its reputation than protecting staff.

This isn’t only a “nurse” problem. When a hospital becomes known as a dangerous place to work, it affects every single person who might one day need care there.

It leads to recruitment problems. It leads to even worse staffing shortages. That, in turn, leads to longer emergency department waits, delayed surgeries, cancelled procedures and worse outcomes for patients.

It becomes a vicious cycle.

Even before this latest crisis, recruiting and retaining nurses was a challenge at HSC. The hospital is chronically short-staffed. Nurses regularly work forced overtime. Vacancies go unfilled. Morale is low, and burnout is high.

Now add the risk of being assaulted on shift, with little to no confidence management will have your back. Who in their right mind would sign up for that?

A grey list, if adopted, would be a flashing red warning sign to every new nursing graduate and out-of-province recruit: avoid HSC.

That would make a bad staffing crisis even worse. It would deepen wait lists. It would increase burnout for the nurses who remain. It would further damage public confidence in a health-care system already on the ropes.

This is why the Kinew government — which campaigned on fixing health care and investing in front-line workers — can’t afford to stay on the sidelines.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara needs to treat this like the emergency it is. That means a public, transparent plan to improve safety at HSC, with measurable timelines and full accountability. It means committing to staffing security and nursing teams. It means bringing in third-party investigators if necessary to examine how past assault allegations were handled — or mishandled.

Most of all, it means listening to nurses. Not with token consultations or passive acknowledgment, but by empowering them to help shape safety protocols, workplace policies and crisis response.

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You can’t fix health care while ignoring the safety of the very people delivering it.

If nurses don’t feel safe, patients won’t be safe either. You can’t deliver compassionate, focused care when you’re looking over your shoulder, worried about being attacked.

No one goes into nursing expecting an easy job. But no one should fear being assaulted at work.

The front lines have spoken. It’s time for Shared Health, HSC leadership and the provincial government to finally listen — and act — before it’s too late.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

Tom Brodbeck
Columnist

Tom Brodbeck is an award-winning author and columnist with over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.

Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are 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.