The Government of Manitoba has begun its health-care listening tour

This morning, Premier Wab Kinew and minister of health, seniors and long-term care, Uzoma Asagwara, began a health-care listening tour.

The two kicked it off by meeting with frontline workers at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg and heard their perspective on key issues in health care, and what should be done about it.

Kinew said the turnout was hefty, filling every seat in the room the group gathered in. Asagwara said this indicates that the listening tour has been a long time coming.

“It’s very clear that frontline health-care workers have had a long-time desire, and an appetite, for working with government to strengthen and fix the issues in our health care system,” the deputy premier said.

Out of the conversation, many issues arose like “workplace culture, addressing the workplace environment, exhaustion, burn out, providing staffing resources–staffing in the system is huge,” Asagwara said.

Kinew added the health-care staffing shortage is a common thread among the host of problems faced by frontline health-care providers.

“Folks are stressed out. Folks are thinking about retirement. Folks are begging for help because they’re short staffed and their jobs are that much more difficult (because of it).” He said, “this is priority number one. We’ve known that. We knew that going into the election.”

The premier said the next step is tackling these issues, which Asagwara said should be done keeping mental health in mind – as per the request of frontline staff.

“What was very clear today, is that health-care workers are navigating a whole host of challenges in terms of their emotional health and mental health related to the pandemic, related to exhaustion and working caseloads and hours that have really stretched them beyond their limits.” The answer, the health minister said, is “taking a trauma-informed approach to not only providing care, but a trauma-informed approach to how we treat our health care workers.”

Kinew said the first stop on the listening tour was riddled with intensity.

“There were a lot of laughs, and there were some tears shed. It’s pretty intense to listen to the voices of those on the frontline.”

But, he said, “our minister of health, our whole team, and myself, are committed to making good on our pledge to fix health care. The way we do that is by working with staff and bringing in a whole lot more staff in the coming years.”

Those in attendance at the Grace Hospital had many good, specific ideas on how to achieve this moving forward, he said.

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