Premier’s victory lap a little bit premature

It takes a special kind of politician to claim victory before the war is over.

Take, for example, a particularly infamous speech by then-U.S. president George W. Bush on May 1, 2003. In his televised speech, which he delivered under a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier parked just off the coast of California, Bush Jr. declared the end of “major combat operations in Iraq,” even as American soldiers continued to fight and die.

The military operation had only been launched six weeks earlier, and by the time of Bush’s pronouncement of the end of operations, more than 130 U.S. military personnel had died in Iraq. While it may have been the end of the initial invasion phase, the actual war continued for years, with the vast majority of U.S. casualties — upwards of 4,000 additional fatalities — taking place after that “Mission Accomplished” declaration.

It is for precisely this reason that such declarations by the political class are not only unwise, they can prove deadly when reality comes to bite you in the butt.

With this in mind, turn to comments made by Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew this week in the wake of Tuesday’s speech from the throne.

In the speech, the government promised to end mandatory overtime for health-care workers, to implement staff-to-patient ratios in priority areas in the health-care system and to create a patient safety charter that would enshrine into law a Manitoban’s right to “good health care.”

In his comments to CBC Radio host Marcy Markusa following the throne speech, Kinew claimed that the NDP has added 3,500 front-line staff, including 1,200 nurses, in its first two years in power.

“We’ve got the numbers. That’s not in question,” Kinew asserted. “It’s just about using (the resources) correctly.”

He further stated that the nurses, health-care aides and physicians have all been doing an “amazing job,” but then threw health-care administration under the bus.

“This is really about the management of our hospitals and regional health authorities,” Kinew said. “We’ve been giving them all the money. We’ve been giving them all the staffing resources. They have to start showing improvement … (and) properly allocate the resources to where they’re needed.”

That position was echoed by Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara on Wednesday during an unrelated press conference with reporters.

“We’ve got the nurses in the health-care system to do this, and we’re going to keep hiring as many nurses as possible,” Asagwara said, “including welcoming nurses from other jurisdictions to our province from the United States, internationally educated nurses.”

With all due respect to the premier and the health minister, the province doesn’t actually have the numbers — at the very least, our corner of it certainly doesn’t.

As the Sun reported yesterday, Prairie Mountain Health currently has a 30 per cent vacancy rate for nurses alone.

As of last month, there were 650 vacant nursing positions in Prairie Mountain Health, with licensed practical nurses accounting for 353 of those positions and registered nurses for 273. That’s according to data from the Manitoba Nurses Union.

In fact, PMH has hundreds of open career positions across many sectors — from residential support services and maternity care, to nutrition services, acute care and long-term care from virtually every affected community served by the health authority. The careers section of the PMH website currently shows 189 open health-care aide positions as well — from part-time to full-time.

We have been bringing this now-chronic problem to reader attention for years now, and it simply isn’t truthful for the premier to claim otherwise.

Keep in mind that in the 2023-24 fiscal year, Prairie Mountain Health sustained an operating deficit of $29.7 million, which was largely attributed to increased salary expenses due to the use of agency staff and overtime, just to maintain service levels. The following year, the operating deficit was $29.2 million, again primarily caused by staff vacancies and the resulting high costs of using agency nursing and overtime.

And the vacancy rate for nursing and health-care staff has not changed for our region dramatically enough for the province to claim victory, and to then start implementing policies that require hospitals that are more fully staffed.

As Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson told the Sun this week, nurses are given no choice but to work extended hours, even after they’ve already worked a 12-hour shift. And mandated shifts continue unabated — not only because of vacations and sick days, but because there’s just not enough staff to handle everything.

There is probably no one more supportive of patient care and safety than the head of the Manitoba Nurses Union. But even Jackson says that the province doesn’t need a patient safety charter. Instead, she would rather the province find a way to ensure there’s appropriate staffing, nurse-to-patient ratios, a safe facility to provide care and a continued focus on recruitment and retention.

“We still have vacancies in this province and until every vacancy is full, I don’t see us being successful in providing safe patient care for every Manitoban,” Jackson said. “It’s great to have it in writing, but where’s the teeth in it?”

We are glad that the NDP government is making significant headway in health-care worker recruitment, and that we’re headed in the right direction.

But we’re not there yet. And in point of fact, it’s dangerous for our health-care workers and dangerous for Manitoba patients that our government suggests otherwise.

Just remember what followed Bush’s own little “mission accomplished” victory lap.

» Matt Goerzen, editor