New year, better health care

Union Station

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/01/2024 (912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Happy new year, Union Station! We’ve already had an incredible start to the year, and I look forward to everything we will do together in 2024. It’s always great to connect with community members, businesses, families and organizations in Union Station at different events or when we’re going about our days in the neighbourhood.

The beginning of the year is also flu season. I encourage you to take care of yourselves, your loved ones, and everyone around you by getting vaccinated and staying home if you’re sick. Many vulnerable people can be protected if we all take those simple steps.

Our team has been working hard to strengthen health care across the province. We’ve begun our health-care listening tour, and it has been an honour. To health-care workers who have participated so far – thank you for sharing so candidly about your experiences in Manitoba’s health-care system.

Acting on those experiences, we announced our investment in dozens of jobs in Winnipeg, Selkirk and Brandon. By adding more social workers, rehabilitation assistants, physiotherapists and other health-care professionals, hospitals will have enough staff to discharge patients seven days a week, rather than five. We want to get rid of the “weekend effect” that prevented patients from returning to their loved ones in a timely manner.

Part of recruiting and retaining staff depends on improving the workplace culture in health care. We’ve heard from front-line staff that we need to take a trauma-informed approach to how we treat our health-care workers. As our team often says — it’s time to start taking care of those who take care of us. We’ve been going to the front lines to repair relationships and working with leaders to implement better approaches to management so we can all put the health of Manitobans first.

Our government’s top priority is ensuring all Manitobans have access to timely care close to home. After years of cuts, patients have been facing excessive wait times to receive care. We’ve announced investments for more acute care beds in both Grace Hospital and St. Boniface Hospital. We’re focused on investments driven by what we’ve heard from front-line staff to add beds throughout the system so that we can relieve pressure in emergency rooms.

I know that beds don’t help anyone if they aren’t staffed, so we’re working on recruiting more amazing healthcare staff to work for our province. I’ve enjoyed meeting with health-care students and we’re looking towards training more health-care workers in the province.

As always, we want to hear from you. Please feel free to visit my office at 210B-254 Edmonton St. You can also contact our team at uzoma.asagwara@yourmanitoba.ca or 204-306-8581