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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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Kinew said fixing long wait times Manitobans are currently experiencing at emergency departments<\/a>, for diagnostics and for medical procedures<\/a> starts with proper staffing.<\/p>\n “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 \u2014 and the acuity. People are sicker today.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He said the province still needs to do more to improve retention, including cutting paperwork and expanding team-based care.<\/p>\n “Manitoba\u00a0loses more physicians to other provinces than it gains, and too many of our own medical graduates move away to practice,” Altman said.<\/p>\n Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the reported net gain in nurses doesn’t align with the experience of many union members.<\/p>\n “The government often tries to explain their math to us, [but] it doesn’t always make sense,” she said.<\/p>\n “Vacancy rates within the City of Winnipeg have certainly decreased.\u2026 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.”<\/p>\n Lower wait times ‘the only metric that matters’<\/p>\n Kinew mentioned efforts his government has made to improve retention, including the recruitment of security staff at health-care facilities.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n
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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)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787120171_734_default.jpg\")
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