City nurses are learning how their jobs could be impacted as the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) moves to close, convert, or update its emergency rooms.
First to see changes are staff at Misericordia Urgent Care, Victoria Hospital and Grace Hospital.
Misericordia’s Urgent Care Centre will close Oct. 3 and on the same day the emergency room at Victoria Hospital will be closed and eventually converted to an urgent care facility.
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About 12 positions will be deleted at Misericordia Hospital but because Victoria’s changes don’t come until 2018, it’s not clear what staffing levels will look like there.
“Ultimately we’re confident every nurse who wants a job at Victoria Hospital within the region will be able to have a job,” Karlee Blatz, Regional Director of Labor Relations said.
The WRHA said about 250 deletion notices will be sent out to nurses at Grace and another 250 at Victoria. Those nurses then have to select which position they would like to keep within any existing unit, apply for a new job outside that unit, or in some cases bump another nurse with less seniority. 25 jobs are being added to Grace Hospital as it expands to accommodate the changes.
“We’ve committed to nurses we will try to minimize the disruption,” Blatz said.
But the process is challenging. As part of collective agreements deletion notices will be sent to 512 nurses, who will then be asked to select a position in the units that aren’t seeing any changes.
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Once that selection process is complete, remaining jobs will be posted at hospitals that are being converted.
The process outlined Tuesday is part of what the WRHA is calling Phase 1.
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The second phase will include the closure of the emergency room at Concordia Hospital and the conversion of the ER at Seven Oaks to an urgent care facility.
The nurses union says the goal behind the deletion notices and selection process was to minimize disruption to staff, but she worries there has been too much uncertainty.
“We are against these front line cuts, however we participated in this process to try and make it smoother,” Sandi Mowat, Manitoba Nurses Union President said.
While the WRHA maintains every nurse who wants a job the same guarantee hasn’t been made to health care aides or administrative clerks.
The union representing those front line workers said Tuesday they’ve heard as many as 40 jobs could be be cut at Victoria Hospital.
“What we were told in April is that there would be a job for every front line staff, since then we’ve had no reassurances, or assurances at all,” MGEU President Michelle Gawronsky said.
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