Most outpatient physio service ends Nov. 24, WRHA says

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This article was published 24/10/2017 (2962 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is in the process of laying off at least 20 physiotherapists as it prepares to eliminate the bulk of its outpatient programming.

The WRHA has set Nov. 24 as the last day for outpatient physiotherapy services at Concordia Hospital, Deer Lodge Centre, Grace Hospital, Misericordia Health Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, Seven Oaks General Hospital and Victoria General Hospital.

The health authority expects to launch smaller, consolidated services Nov. 27 at Health Sciences Centre.

New clinical criteria outlining who will be eligible for the remaining service was announced last week. Service will be offered to people with tendon transfers, repairs or reconstructions, ligament transfers, repairs or reconstructions, and periarticular fractures, among other conditions.

Only a dozen outpatient physiotherapists will be kept to staff the HSC program, a WRHA spokeswoman said Tuesday, although a few more could still have jobs and “may be reassigned to support inpatient activity.”

There are 41 physiotherapists who provide outpatient services and the WRHA says it expects only 20 staff will be laid off, meaning nine will find inpatient work.

The president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents most of Winnipeg’s outpatient physiotherapists, said that’s not in keeping with what the union’s been told throughout the ongoing labour adjustment process.

Bob Moroz said he believes the WRHA is cutting 20 full-time positions, but that those jobs are filled by roughly 28 people who work some variation of part-time.

“That’s the difference between full-time equivalent (FTE) and people,” he said, speaking of a staff measurement that has come up frequently during the system reorganization. “It might be 20 FTE, but it’s at least 28 people, at least.”

As of Nov. 27, the WRHA spokeswoman said, there will be 12 outpatient physiotherapists working the equivalent of 11.2 full-time jobs. Six secretarial positions and five rehabilitation assistant positions connected with outpatient physiotherapy are also being cut.

Moroz said individual sit-downs with affected staff started last week. He urged Manitobans not to dismiss the cuts as having minimal impact. He said the physiotherapists went through their patient files for the past year to see how many wouldn’t meet the new clinical criteria. From that, he said, they estimate the number of patients who will be cut off from public service is close to 3,000.

“It may sound like a small number in terms of 28 people who might be losing their jobs, but the impact is obviously 100-fold that,” he said.

The WRHA says it will stop referring patients to outpatient physio on Nov. 3.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca