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Manitoba’s NDP government says the province has added a net 4,725 health-care workers since the party came to power nearly three years ago.
Premier Wab Kinew said more nurses and doctors are working in the province than ever before. He made the comments during a news conference in which he touted several measures his government has taken to improve health care since being elected in October 2023.
“When we ran for office a few years ago, we made clear we were going to proceed with fixing the health-care system,” he said at Winnipeg’s Seven Oaks Hospital on Tuesday.
Kinew said fixing long wait times Manitobans are currently experiencing at emergency departments, for diagnostics and for medical procedures starts with proper staffing.
“We’re on track,” he said. “What has changed over the past few years is that the volumes at the emergency rooms and the urgent cares are much greater today — and the acuity. People are sicker today.”
The 4,725 full-time and part-time workers announced by the province Tuesday include 2,152 health-care aides, 1,464 nurses, 370 doctors and 59 residents.
Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Alon Altman said in a statement the net increase in physicians is good news for Manitobans looking for a family doctor or waiting for care.
He said the province still needs to do more to improve retention, including cutting paperwork and expanding team-based care.
“Manitoba loses more physicians to other provinces than it gains, and too many of our own medical graduates move away to practice,” Altman said.
Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the reported net gain in nurses doesn’t align with the experience of many union members.
“The government often tries to explain their math to us, [but] it doesn’t always make sense,” she said.
“Vacancy rates within the City of Winnipeg have certainly decreased.… But when you get beyond the perimeter into our rural and remote and northern regions, that’s where we’re really seeing a lot of vacancies.”
Lower wait times ‘the only metric that matters’
Kinew mentioned efforts his government has made to improve retention, including the recruitment of security staff at health-care facilities.
“If we want to reduce waits and increase the number of beds, there needs to be the staff there,” he said. “And if we want the staff to stick around and keep working, we need the institutional safety officers to be there and the security guards to be there.”
The NDP said 67 clinical and physician assistants and six midwives have also been added since October 2023, as well as 607 allied health professionals ranging from paramedics and emergency medical responders to lab technicians, technologists, physiotherapists and other roles.
Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Jason Linklater said in a statement the province is still facing critical allied health staffing shortages, including “dangerously high vacancy rates” among respiratory therapists and rural paramedics.
A provincial press secretary said 56 net new paramedics had been added as of Tuesday. During the 2023 campaign, the NDP promised to hire 200 paramedics by the end of its first term.
Linklater said the only metric that matters is whether “Manitobans wait less time for care tomorrow than they did yesterday.”
Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said the premier is using the 4,725 figure to mislead Manitobans about the state of health care.
He said the “real numbers” people experience are wait time figures for emergency care, MRI and CT scans, as well as the number of hospitals that have been grey-listed by the nurses union.
“The premier can do all the creative accounting he wants with the 4,700-plus, but the reality is … health care is worse under this NDP government than it’s ever been in the history of this province,” Khan said.
Dr. Ayomikun Soyombo, who was recruited by the province from the U.K. to work at Seven Oaks and Grace Hospital, says he chose Manitoba over three other provinces. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
The NDP government also welcomed the addition of two doctors to Seven Oaks’ urgent care department, including Ayomikun Soyombo — an emergency physician recruited from the U.K. — during the news conference.
Soyombo, who’s originally from Nigeria, landed in the province Sunday. He said he turned down three other provinces to accept Manitoba’s offer, saying it was the most inspiring one.
“I was just like, … I won’t miss this opportunity,” Soyombo said. “The dedication I saw was a powerful message about how important recruitment is to the province.”
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the Winnipeg hospital has seen a net increase of 111 health-care staff since October 2023.
“We’ve got a locally trained family medicine doctor who is taking ER training.… We’ve got someone who comes all the way from the U.K.,” Asagwara said Tuesday.
“I think that goes to show you that we’re really addressing the challenge of staffing from all possible angles.”
WATCH | Kinew touts net gain in health-care workers:
Manitoba touts hiring 4,700 net new health-care workers
While Manitoba’s NDP government celebrated the hiring of 4,700 net new health-care workers, the premier acknowledges there’s still progress to be made on lowering wait times.