Rural and northern Manitoba hospitals suffer while dealing with staff shortage

Doctors Manitoba are sounding the alarm, advising people that only 25% of hospitals in rural and northern Manitoba will have ERs open 24/7, and even those that will have reliable service like the Selkirk regional health centre, are doing so on a thread, dipping into doctor and nurse overtime to fill schedules.  

It’s yet another stark reminder that the provincial health care system is in desperate need of bodies on the front lines

“We just need more people so that there’s a little bit of a buffer, so that we can cover sick calls, we don’t have to run at bare minimum all the time,” said Dr. Nichelle Desilets, President-Elect of Doctors Manitoba.

“24 or more ERs have limited hours of operation or periodic closures and this is often due to physician, nurse and other staff shortages.  28 more hospitals have ERs that have closed completely, either on a short- or long-term basis,” said Desilets.

“We know that there’s a shortage of doctors, especially out in the rural and northern areas.  A shortage of nurses all over the province, and I think this is a symptom of what’s to come in the future as we get deeper and deeper into the shortages.  So unfortunately, this is going to effect patient care and effect the ability of patients to access care in those areas,” said Darlene Jackson, President of Manitoba Nurses Union.

Minister of Health Uzoma Asagwara addressed the staffing issues to media, reiterating that the government has directed shared health to reallocate 8 per cent of the budget from the bureaucracy to the front lines. While also acknowledging the issues in rural hospitals, are not an over night fix.

“The ballooning bureaucracy in healthcare, needs to be redirected to the front lines to make sure that we have more staff and that patients have better care,” said Asagwara.

“I certainly recognize that rural healthcare has taken a big hit over the last 7 ½ years by the PCs, and its going to take a sustained effort by our government to fix that and we’re doing that every day,” added Asagwara.

Doctors Manitoba is urging people in rural and northern communities to plan ahead using their website ruralcare.ca to access local ER schedules.