{"id":635750,"date":"2026-04-29T05:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635750\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:44:18","slug":"emergency-at-northern-manitoba-hospitals-declared-by-health-region-but-called-off-by-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635750\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency at northern Manitoba hospitals declared by health region, but called off by province"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

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The Northern Health Region declared an emergency due to critical staffing shortages, but Manitoba Health said the declaration was rescinded Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The declaration covered the emergency and special care units at St. Anthony\u2019s General Hospital in The Pas and Thompson General Hospital. It also included the obstetrics and operating room departments at the Thompson hospital, an internal memo sent to health region staff members on April 27 said.<\/p>\n

A meeting between the health region and the Manitoba Nurses Union to discuss the declaration is scheduled for Wednesday, the memo \u2014 which was obtained by CBC News \u2014states.<\/p>\n

“We recognize the importance of staff being informed and will provide additional updates as more information becomes available,” says the memo, which was sent to all health region staff Monday evening by interim CEO Cameron Ritzer.<\/p>\n

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said after the memo’s release that the emergency declaration had been rescinded, saying it was called prematurely.<\/p>\n

“The decision was made and communicated prematurely, without having all of the work being done to explore and action all of the options available to the region within the collectively bargained agreement,” Asagwara said.<\/p>\n

The health minister said the region’s existing contract with the Manitoba Nurses Union outlines options it could take to fix staffing issues before calling an emergency.<\/p>\n

“The north is harder to staff than southern regions. We know that. So, there’s a number of options that are available to the region that were not fully explored first,” Asagwara said.<\/p>\n

\"AManitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the Northern Health Region’s contract with the Manitoba Nurses Union outlines options it could take to fix staffing issues before calling an emergency. (Bryce Hoye\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The declaration was called under Article 10 of the collective agreement with the Manitoba Nurses Union, which deals with emergency, disaster and fire plans. It allows the employer to require nurses “to perform duties as assigned notwithstanding any contrary provision in this agreement” in situations that “directly affect the safety or well-being of patients\/residents\/clients in the site.”<\/p>\n

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said declaring an emergency can mean making staff work longer hours and outside the scope of their contracts.<\/p>\n

“Under an emergency, the employer has the right to have nurses work whenever, wherever, and they can enforce overtime. They can do anything necessary to deal with that emergency. In this case, we already have nurses who are working extra hours,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"AManitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson says declaring an emergency can mean making staff work longer hours. (Felisha Adam\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“Double shifts and overtime have been mandated already. I don’t know what talking about an Article 10 would do. These nurses are already doing as much as much as they can to keep those facilities running.”<\/p>\n

Asagwara said there are options available under the existing collective agreement to cover short-term absences without calling an emergency.<\/p>\n

“These are long-standing problems. We didn’t get to where we are \u2014 in terms of the staffing challenges in the north and other challenges \u2014 overnight, and we’re not going to fix them overnight. It’s going to take us time. That being said, we’ve taken a number of steps to make sure that they are better resourced,” the minister said.<\/p>\n

“People who live in the north deserve care in their own community.”<\/p>\n

Jackson said there are long-standing staff shortages in northern hospitals but questioned why the emergency was called.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t say it’s an emergency. It’s been something that’s been happening for a long time and just has not been dealt with,” she said.<\/p>\n

The union grey-listed the Thompson hospital late last year, calling for safety improvements after two violent incidents. One happened on Christmas Eve 2024, when a man entered the hospital with a firearm, pointed it at a staff member and shot out a window in the hospital’s chapel. The second incident was in September, when a patient was stabbed while getting care at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"TheSt. Anthony’s General Hospital in The Pas has critical staffing shortages in its emergency and special care unit department, the Northern Health Region says in a memo to staff. (Riley Laychuk\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a woman was arrested for allegedly punching a staff member in the face at St. Anthony\u2019s Hospital. <\/p>\n

Grey-listing a hospital warns potential applicants to avoid employment at the hospital due to safety issues, poor working conditions or unfair employer practices.<\/p>\n

The Manitoba Nurses Union posted news of the state of emergency on its social channels on Tuesday morning and called for immediate action by the health minister.<\/p>\n

“Northern nurses have already stretched every resource, explored every option and pushed beyond their limits. They are not failing the system \u2014 the system is failing them,” it stated.<\/p>\n

Jackson said the province needs more health-care staff in northern communities.<\/p>\n

“I think the government needs to step up very quickly and look at recruitment and retention initiatives for the north. It is a very difficult area to recruit to, and I think we need to look at that quickly,” she said.<\/p>\n

CBC reached out to the Northern Health Region for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-635750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635750","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=635750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}