The plan focuses on retaining staff, training more professionals by expanding health care programs in Manitoba and recruiting new workers through immigration and graduation, lowering barriers to entry into the system, Manitoba’s premier said Thursday in Winnipeg. Heather Stephenson. “This action plan is a critical turning point in addressing Manitoba’s health workforce challenges,” he said. Among the initiatives are a commitment to end mandatory overtime for nurses, financial incentives for workers to work certain shifts, more support for mental health counseling and incentives for clinics that choose to stay open on weekends and evenings. Access to care has been significantly affected for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the high turnover of health workers, particularly in nursing. A recent Doctors Manitoba survey also found that one in two respondents are at a high level of burnout and two in five doctors plan to leave Manitoba, retire or reduce clinic hours in the next three years. Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Thursday that keeping the roughly 40,000 workers in the system is the “first and most important pillar” of the plan. Among a raft of boosts, he said staff would be offered financial incentives to work weekends and encourage nurses to work full-time if they haven’t already. Manitoba is also going to cover the licensing fees of all licensed health professionals for two years and add more hospital security officers, Gordon said, as well as boost the number of psychiatrists and psychologists in hospitals.
Support for nurses
The province will also work to end mandatory overtime for nurses, some of whom have been forced to work 14- to 16-hour shifts during the pandemic. Gordon asked the heads of health care organizations to come up with plans to reduce the burden caused by “excessive” overtime. “This is the right thing to do,” he said. “Respect starts with listening, and we’ve heard the concerns of frontline nurses.” Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon is announcing a series of supportive measures Thursday as part of the province’s plan to attract and retain health workers. (CBC) The province is working to form a provincial agency to reduce reliance on private sector nurses to fill staffing holes in the public system. Gordon said the project stems from an element of the Manitoba Nurses Association’s 2021 collective agreement. Manitoba is also hoping to entice nurses who have left the system to return by restoring their seniority levels and covering the cost of testing and remedial training if they return. At the end of recruitment, the province will offer up to $23,000 each to international nurses working to obtain a license to practice in Manitoba. Gordon said he is touching on previously announced initiatives aimed at making it easier for internationally trained nurses to enter the Manitoba system. Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said the announcements are a “positive first step,” including focuses on retention and efforts to lure nurses out of retirement. “If we can keep them in the system, those are the nurses with the experience and the skills to really mentor and support other nurses,” she said. Mike Nader, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, is also encouraged by the reintroduction of more retired nurses into the system and the planned addition of more security officers. The phasing out of mandatory nursing overtime will be difficult to pull off because of current vacancies, she said, but necessary. “The mandate is something that is absolutely killer for us in terms of our ability to retain and recruit people … so it’s something we absolutely have to do,” he said.
Step in the right direction: Doctors Manitoba
The announcement comes two weeks after Manitoba Doctors, which advocates for doctors, released five recommendations of its own. These include offering more mental health advocates to address health care workforce burnout, providing financial incentives to out-of-province prospects considering moving to Manitoba, and focusing on recruiting more doctors to rural and northern communities. Gordon pledged to do so last Thursday and promised to work with Manitoba Doctors to strengthen medical practices in Manitoba and improve access to primary care, including through financial support for clinics that choose to extend evening hours and weekend hours. The province is also moving forward with the Manitoba Doctors recommendation to create a central hub where health care workers can connect for advice in complex cases. The plan involves connecting rural and remote health care workers with doctors who specialize in emergency medicine, with the hope of reducing the need for medevac transport to hospitals in urban centers. Dr. Candace Bradshaw, president of Doctors Manitoba, says she is pleased to see so many of the recommendations her organization has made incorporated into the provincial plan to attract and retain health care staff. (CBC) Dr. Candace Bradshaw, president of Doctors Manitoba, said it’s a relief to see so many of the organization’s recruitment and retention proposals being embraced by the province. Bradshaw said Manitobans continue to wait “unreasonably long” for care in emergency rooms, for surgeries and diagnostic tests. There are 150,000 Manitobans without a family doctor because the province has the fewest in Canada, he said, and the closing of rural and northern hospitals is making it harder for people to access care. “The causes of these problems are complex, but often they all come back to a common problem and that is shortage and burnout among health workers,” he said. The Manitoba Health Professionals Association, which represents 7,000 respiratory therapists, laboratory and diagnostic technologists and other allied health professionals, said it was not consulted. “Unfortunately, we have yet to hear details that will keep the thousands of experienced, specialist health professionals on the front lines now, whose wages have been frozen for nearly five years.” “If they really want to give hope to the frontline, then our members need more detail and meaningful action now.”
