{"id":531215,"date":"2026-03-12T10:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531215\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T10:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:42:13","slug":"manitoba-government-plans-steps-toward-reducing-nurse-overtime-improving-care-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531215\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba government plans steps toward reducing nurse overtime, improving care – Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tBy \tThe Staff<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted March 11, 2026 11:49 pm\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The Manitoba government is planning to set up two committees as part of its promise to improve health care.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A bill now before the legislature would set up one group to come up with appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios and recommend which areas of health care, such as intensive care units, would be subject to the numbers.<\/p>\n

Another bill would allow the health minister to set staffing and other benchmarks for health providers, with the aim of ending mandatory overtime for nurses.<\/p>\n

The bill would allow for a committee to advise the minister on how to proceed.<\/p>\n

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The NDP government has promised to bolster nursing ranks, and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the bills set a framework to accomplish those goals.<\/p>\n

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives say health-care unions have raised questions about whether there are enough workers to meet the government\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n

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Asagwara said the NDP government has hired more nurses and other health care professionals, and the bills will help improve patient care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re saying very clearly to nurses and to health-care providers and the system as a whole that patient safety and the quality of care \u2026 must be a top priority,\u201d Asagwara said.<\/p>\n

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The government has been examining similar moves undertaken in British Columbia, Asagwara said.<\/p>\n

If the bill is passed into law and guidelines are set to eliminate mandatory overtime for nurses, overtime would still be allowed in certain circumstances, such as a scenario in which a patient\u2019s life or health is at imminent risk, or in a major disaster.<\/p>\n

Tory health critic Kathleen Cook said details of the government\u2019s plan are still lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that these bills are more than symbolic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By The Staff The Canadian Press Posted March 11, 2026 11:49 pm 1 min read Descrease article font…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,84,714,22073],"class_list":["post-531215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-politics","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}