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Winnipeg’s extended-hour clinic staff will soon be checking in and treating patients waiting for care at emergency departments, Manitoba’s health minister says.
Uzoma Asagwara says clinic staff will will be able to go into an emergency department and identify patients who would benefit from being seen at their clinic instead.
Asagwara says work to rollout the initiative will be happening “right away” as the province looks to address long wait times in hospitals.
“We need people to do that when it’s appropriate instead of waiting in emergency departments,” Asagwara told reporters at the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) on Thursday. “We just got to get the word out to folks.”
The NDP government has established extended-hour clinics at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface, Grace, Concordia and Victoria hospitals. They’re open year-round including evenings and weekends, and are meant to be an alternative for Manitobans whose health provider isn’t available or when they don’t have one.
Asagwara said the extended-hour clinics are currently running at around 85 per cent capacity, but the province wants to see them being fully utilized.
Urgent care and emergency departments will also be able to tell patients “‘you do need care, but this isn’t the place you need to be,'” the minister said, and ensure they’re treated at the extended-hours clinic immediately.
The median wait time for all Winnipeg hospitals was just over four hours in December compared with 3.75 hours the same month last year. One in 10 patients waited a little over 11 hours in December, according to data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Last month, Stacey Ross, 55, died after an 11-hour wait at St. Boniface Hospital. The death is being investigated as a critical incident.
Judy Burns, 68, died in the same hospital a few days later. Her family told CBC News earlier this month their concerns were repeatedly dismissed by ER staff.
In 2025, an 86-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man died following long waits at emergency departments in the city.
LISTEN | Health minister vows to address ER wait times:
As It Happens6:17Manitoba health minister vows to address ER wait times after string of patient deaths
In recent months, four Manitobans have died after long waits in provincial emergency rooms under circumstances that have left their families demanding answers and accountability. Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal
Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said redirecting patients away from emergency is a good idea, but Manitoba must ensure there’s enough room so patients “actually receive care and aren’t just turned away.”
“For a lot of those individuals that are showing up at ERs, it’s because they have nowhere else to go,” she said.
“It’s almost impossible at some points to get into a walk-in clinic. I don’t believe we’re utilizing nurse practitioners adequately.”
Institutional safety officers added
Asagwara made the comments during a news conference addressing the measures it’s taken to make hospitals safer for health-care workers.
They said the province is hiring more institutional safety officers (ISO) than the 105 it had planned to deploy across health-care facilities.
The province said 128 fully funded ISO positions have been created across Manitoba, including 60 at the HSC, 20 in the Prairie Mountain Health region, 12 at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, and 18 each at the Grace and St. Boniface hospitals.
There will also be five new ISOs beginning shifts at Thompson General Hospital next month, the government said in a release.
A phone app that lets staff receive safety alerts is also being expanded to more hospitals.
The SAFE mobile app lets workers contact hospital security, request safe walk or rides, and send their location to friends and family, among other features. It was rolled out at HSC in October, and expanded to St. Boniface Hospital and the Brandon Regional Health Centre this year.
Dr. Chris Christodoulou, interim president and CEO of Shared Health, said Thursday there are plans for the app to go live at the Victoria and Thompson General hospitals “in the next few weeks,” with more facilities to be added later in 2026.
“You can’t have patient safety without staff safety,” Christodoulou said. “This is a fundamental principle in health care.”
Darlene Jackson says most if not all of the initiatives the government talked about during Thursday’s news conference on health-care safety were reactive. (Travis Golby/CBC)
Jackson says nurses are not finding the app all that helpful so far, and that the province needs to provide more details about ISOs — including the specific hours they will cover and how many will be at a hospital at any given time.
She said the initiatives are a start, but not enough.
“Everything that’s been done is reactive to either an incredibly significant incident that has garnered public attention, an arbitrator [who’s] said ‘You must do this,’ or grey-listing,” she said.
No cause for celebration: union
The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals said the only reason the government has done anything to improve safety for frontline workers is because unions have forced it into action.
President Jason Linklater said in a statement the limited initiatives and funding are not “cause for congratulation or celebration” when Shared Health still fails to meet safety requirements.
MLA Kathleen Cook (Roblin), health critic for the Progressive Conservatives, said the NDP needs to bring in ISOs immediately.
She said in a statement the party unequivocally supports nurses about to vote to designate St. Boniface Hospital unsafe
If they do, St. Boniface would become the third hospital to have been grey-listed in recent months, following similar votes on the HSC and Thompson General last year.
Jackson reiterated Thursday HSC’s grey-listing won’t be lifted until the union gets concrete commitments and timelines on how to improve safety there.