PV Manitoba Bureau
As the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP) continues bargaining for over 95 percent of its 7000 members, an internal survey reveals a workforce under tremendous duress.
According to the survey, two out of three allied health professionals have seriously considered leaving their jobs in the last year alone – an alarming increase from deep-pandemic levels of workplace discontent.
Over numerous consecutive terms of Conservative government, Manitoba’s healthcare system endured endemic targeted underspending, even amid a deepening drug crisis and a global pandemic, during which healthcare workers have been pushed to the brink in every respect. According to survey results, workload and intake has “greatly increased” over the last five years while staffing has not, despite a growing number of unfilled vacancies. And as serious shortfalls persist across the system, it’s particularly alarming to read that more than a quarter of those who have considered leaving their job are considering leaving the healthcare field altogether.
In a new social media campaign, MAHCP members share their specific struggles and discuss the many impacts of “working short,” from longer waits to a lack of treatment options. In these vignettes, Manitoba is revealed to come up short against a number of professional quotas – in home care workers, therapists, paramedics, technologists, and all kinds of frontline workers.
Without this work force, the healthcare system can’t function. For example, in surgical procedures alone, MAHCP members provide 80 percent of the information needed to operate laboratory tests, MRI, CR scans, x-rays and other critical tests. These questions of retention and workload directly affect the health of all Manitobans.
Manitoba simply can’t afford to lose more specialized healthcare professionals, and while the relatively new NDP government boasts of growing recruitment, more is required. The MAHCP members’ survey reveals the outcomes of a longstanding Conservative project to tip public opinion in favour of privatization, which cannot be reversed quickly enough.
[Photo: MAHCP]
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