Western Manitobans contend with therapy delays

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This article was published 25/01/2025 (231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A shortage of occupational therapists in the Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) region has resulted in 746 western Manitobans whose therapy has been delayed while they’re wait listed.

The delays are specifically being experienced by 323 children and 423 adults.

There are also 12 rural health-care facilities in the region that are either without or have limited occupational therapist services, said Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government Employees Union.

“It’s definitely a larger issue in our rural communities,” Ross said. “We hear it a lot from occupational therapy members we represent in the rural areas, that they just don’t have the hands.”

“And it’s frustrating for them because they know what the service could be, and what they could offer, and they’re unable to do it,” he said.

As of Jan. 1, 2024, there were 17 vacant occupational therapy positions in PMH, with 41 positions filled. That is seven more than the previous year, which had 10 vacant positions, according to documents attained by MGEU and shared with the Sun.

Ross said it’s up to PMH to recruit and retain more health-care workers. He added that cuts from the previous provincial PC government, along with no pay increases in their contracts — “essentially zeros for so many years,” drove therapists out of the province.

“We have to be competitive; we have to get people to Manitoba and it’s a challenge, but we need these services, especially in rural communities,” said Ross.

“These folks are entitled to these services as much as everybody else, and we have to find a way to make sure that we have workers there, and that people are being served,” he said.

Of the 423 adults in the PMH region currently waiting for occupational therapy, 72 are outpatients, which refers to people who are not in acute care or in a long-term care facility.

The other 215 on the waiting list are in long-term care.

But according to memos that PMH has sent to its directors, managers and physicians in acute and long-term care, “Due to significant staffing vacancies, occupational therapy services will be very limited in the foreseeable future.”

MGEU said it obtained the memos from its members and provided the Sun with copies that were originally sent Aug. 18, 2024.

One memo advised that the Grandview Health Centre will no longer have occupational therapy services for acute care.

Another memo listed the communities of Glenboro, Carberry, Baldur, Boissevain, Deloraine, Cartwright and Wawanesa, adding there will be “no occupational therapy services in acute care for the sites of Carberry, Glenboro and Deloraine Health Centres.”

Additionally, the memo advised that patients who required the services should be routed to other sites, “as there is no ability to pull service from elsewhere in the region to attend the site to provide care.”

The third memo called attention to Souris, Hartney, Treherne, Killarney, Cartwright and Boissevain with a plan that the Souris Health Centre and the Tiger Hills Health Centre in Treherne would have “on-site OT services once per week starting September 3rd.”

Additional comments stated, “The Tri-Lake Health Centre in Killarney and the Boissevain Health Centre will have on-site OT services once per week, starting September 3rd, 2024.”

Over the last two years, expanding programs in hospitals and increasing staff in long-term care facilities has led to the need for occupational therapists in PMH, Treena Slate, PMH’s CEO, told the Sun.

“PMH is actively working to recruit and retain occupational therapists in these positions,” she said.

“As PMH works to hire additional OTs, there have been some temporary changes to services. Service options are communicated to patients once their care needs have been determined. Service will be provided according to the highest need prioritizing client, caregiver and staff safety,” Slate stated in an email.

The shortage of occupational therapists goes beyond PMH, according to Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.

Both he and Ross said paying the therapists what they’re worth is just one of the ways to attract and keep more of the health-care professionals in Manitoba. Both unions are currently in negotiations with the government for a new contract.

“The situation is particularly dire in Manitoba’s Northern Health Region,” said Linklater, adding, “where a small number of staff is responsible for providing OT services for long-term care and acute facilities across a massive geographic region.”

“Without a new allied health contract that offers incentives and competitive wages to retain and recruit OT services, quite frankly — all allied health roles are at risk,” Linklater wrote in an email to the Sun.

Ross said during a recent trip to Boundary Trails Hospital in Winkler — located about 222 kilometres southeast of Brandon — he saw the staff shortage for himself.

“They were showing me around saying there used to be four or five us here, now there’s two. So, we know that the people are doing the best they can with what they have, but we know it’s to the suffering of patients and them not getting the quality service that they expect,” Ross said.

Occupational therapists help people in many ways. They are involved in patient assessment, hospital discharges, and help clients adapt their homes for mobility equipment like wheelchairs. Additionally, the therapists provide assistance in long-term care facilities, and in the community, helping pediatric clients.

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