Manitoba nurses delivering supplies to patients’ homes is safety risk, union says

The Manitoba Nurses’ Union is voicing its concerns about what it’s calling a cost-cutting measure in the province’s health-care system.

The union representing Manitoba’s nurses says community nurses are being directed to collect several days’ worth of supplies in their personal vehicles and deliver them themselves.

“It’s a way of saving money, but as usual it’s on the backs of nurses and at the expense of patient care,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said.

According to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA), these new measures have proven to be better for clients.

“The WRHA Home Care program has been working over the past several years to standardize the supply ordering and delivery processes of all community area home care teams to create consistency in operations, minimize waste, and ensure changing supply needs for clients are met,” a WRHA spokesperson told CityNews in a statement.

“Homecare nursing supplies, such as medical and surgical dressings, can often only be ordered and delivered in large quantities. As client care needs change so do their supply needs, often meaning that large quantities of supplies that are no longer needed are wasted, as they cannot be returned to inventory due to infection prevention and control standards. We heard from clients that they were often stuck with large amounts of wasted supplies.”

The WRHA says it began as a pilot project in 2022 in the St. Vital area.

However for one nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, change came just last week.

“Our catheter trays, they have a pre-filled syringe, they freeze… and then we’ve also got lubricant,” they said. “Like how uncomfortable is that for me to go to someone’s home and to try and change their catheter and I’ve got frozen lubricant.

“We can’t do more with less… we just want to provide the best care for our clients.”

Prior to the 2022 measure being implemented, supplies were shipped directly to clients’ homes.

Jackson says the change has also caused a safety risk for nurses.

“They carry those supplies in their own personal vehicles which, if there’s medical supplies in a vehicle, there’s always a chance someone’s going to break in thinking there may be something more than dressings in there,” she said.

Home care nurses see anywhere from 15-20 clients a day and would be carrying anything from dressing supplies to incontinence products. Jackson says nurses have voiced frustration regarding mixed messages about carrying boxes full of supplies.

“One day they got a message from their employer saying, ‘be careful when you’re walking outside, it’s slippery, don’t carry things in your hands, watch where you’re going and be careful,’” Jackson recounted. “And the next day, an email came out that said, ‘oh by the way, you’re going to pack boxes and take them to clients’ homes.’”

In a statement, Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says WRHA must update its standards “and match other jurisdictions to centralize where supplies are held: at the community offices nurses work out of and not in patients’ homes.

“I want to thank homecare nurses for the incredible work that they do taking care of our most vulnerable. We continue to work alongside you to make Manitoba the best place to work in health care.”

Asagwara says health care remains a top priority for the Kinew government, adding “it’s going to take time to reverse the damage left by the PCs.”